Theosophy Generally Stated

From the Official
Report, World's Parliament of Religions, 1893

THE claim is made
that an impartial study of history, religion and literature will show the
existence from ancient times of a great body of philosophical, scientific and
ethical doctrine forming the basis and origin of all similar thought in modern
systems. It is at once religious and scientific, asserting that religion and
science should never be separated. It puts forward sublime religious and ideal
teachings, but at the same time shows that all of it can be demonstrated to
reason, and that authority other than that has no place, thus preventing the
hypocrisy which arises from asserting dogmas on authority which no one can show
as resting on reason. This ancient body of doctrine is known as the "Wisdom
Religion" and was always taught by adepts or initiates therein who preserve it
through all time. Hence, and from other doctrines demonstrated, it is shown that
man, being spirit and immortal, is able to perpetuate his real life and
consciousness, and has done so during all time in the persons of those higher
flowers of the human race who are members of an ancient and high brotherhood who
concern themselves with the soul development of man, held by them to include
every process of evolution on all planes. The initiates, being bound by the law
of evolution, must work with humanity as its development permits. Therefore from
time to time they give out again and again the same doctrine which from time to
time grows obscured in various nations and places. This is the wisdom religion,
and they are the keepers of it. At times they come to nations as great teachers
and "saviours," who only re-promulgate the old truths and system of ethics. This
therefore holds that humanity is capable of infinite perfection both in time
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and quality, the saviours and adepts being held up as examples of that
possibility.
From this living and
presently acting body of perfected men H.P. Blavatsky declared she received the
impulse to once more bring forward the old ideas, and from them also received
several keys to ancient and modern doctrines that had been lost during modern
struggles toward civilization, and also that she was furnished by them with some
doctrines really ancient but entirely new to the present day in any exoteric
shape. These she wrote among the other keys furnished by her to her fellow
members and the world at large. Added, then, to the testimony through all time
found in records of all nations we have this modern explicit assertion that the
ancient learned and humanitarian body of adepts still exists on this earth and
takes an interest in the development of the race.
Theosophy postulates
an eternal principle called the unknown, which can never be cognized except
through its manifestations. This eternal principle is in and is every thing and
being; it periodically and eternally manifests itself and recedes again from
manifestation. In this ebb and flow evolution proceeds and itself is the
progress of the manifestation. The perceived universe is the manifestation of
this unknown, including spirit and matter, for Theosophy holds that those are
but the two opposite poles of the one unknown principle. They coexist, are not
separate nor separable from each other, or, as the Hindu scriptures say, there
is no particle of matter without spirit, and no particle of spirit without
matter. In manifesting itself the spirit-matter differentiates on seven planes,
each more dense on the way down to the plane of our senses than its predecessor,
the substance in all being the same only differing in degree. Therefore from
this view the whole universe is alive, not one atom of it being in any sense
dead. It is also conscious and intelligent, its consciousness and intelligence
being present on all planes though obscured on this one. On this plane of ours
the spirit focalizes itself in all human beings who choose to permit it to do
so, and the refusal to permit it is the cause of ignorance, of sin, of all
sorrow and suffering.
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In all ages some have come to this high state, have grown to be as gods, are
partakers actively in the work of nature, and go on from century to century
widening their consciousness and increasing the scope of their government in
nature. This is the destiny of all beings, and hence at the outset Theosophy
postulates this perfectibility of the race, removes the idea of innate
unregenerable wickedness, and offers a purpose and an aim for life which is
consonant with the longings of the soul and with its real nature, tending at the
same time to destroy pessimism with its companion, despair.
In Theosophy the
world is held to be the product of the evolution of the principle spoken of from
the very lowest first forms of life guided as it proceeded by intelligent
perfected beings from other and older evolutions, and compounded also of the
egos or individual spirits for and by whom it emanates. Hence man as we know him
is held to be a conscious spirit, the flower of evolution, with other and lower
classes of egos below him in the lower kingdoms, all however coming up and
destined one day to be on the same human stage as we now are, we then being
higher still. Man's consciousness being thus more perfect is able to pass from
one to another of the planes of differentiation mentioned. If he mistakes any
one of them for the reality that he is in his essence, he is deluded; the object
of evolution then is to give him complete self-consciousness so that he may go
on to higher stages in the progress of the universe. His evolution after coming
on the human stage is for the getting of experience, and in order to so raise up
and purify the various planes of matter with which he has to do, that the voice
of the spirit may be fully heard and comprehended.
He is a religious
being because he is a spirit encased in matter, which is in turn itself
spiritual in essence. Being a spirit he requires vehicles with which to come in
touch with all the planes of nature included in evolution, and it is these
vehicles that make of him an intricate, composite being, liable to error, but at
the same time able to rise above all delusions and conquer the highest place. He
is in miniature the universe, for he
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is as spirit, manifesting himself to himself by means of seven differentiations.
Therefore is he known in Theosophy as a sevenfold being. The Christian division
of body, soul, and spirit is accurate so far as it goes, but will not answer to
the problems of life and nature, unless, as is not the case, those three
divisions are each held to be composed of others, which would raise the possible
total to seven. The spirit stands alone at the top, next comes the spiritual
soul or Buddhi as it is called in Sanskrit. This partakes more of the spirit
than any below it, and is connected with Manas or mind, these three being the
real trinity of man, the imperishable part, the real thinking entity living on
the earth in the other and denser vehicles by its evolution. Below in order of
quality is the plane of the desires and passions shared with the animal kingdom,
unintelligent, and the producer of ignorance flowing from delusion. It is
distinct from the will and judgment, and must therefore be given its own place.
On this plane is gross life, manifesting, not as spirit from which it derives
its essence, but as energy and motion on this plane. It being common to the
whole objective plane and being everywhere, is also to be classed by itself, the
portion used by man being given up at the death of the body. Then last, before
the objective body, is the model or double of the outer physical case. This
double is the astral body belonging to the astral plane of matter, not so dense
as physical molecules, but more tenuous and much stronger, as well as lasting.
It is the original of the body permitting the physical molecules to arrange and
show themselves thereon, allowing them to go and come from day to day as they
are known to do, yet ever retaining the fixed shape and contour given by the
astral double within. These lower four principles or sheaths are the transitory
perishable part of man, not himself, but in every sense the instrument he uses,
given up at the hour of death like an old garment, and rebuilt out of the
general reservoir at every new birth. The trinity is the real man, the thinker,
the individuality that passes from house to house, gaining experience at each
rebirth, while it suffers and enjoys according to its deeds - it is the one
central man, the living spirit-soul.
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Now this spiritual man, having always existed, being intimately concerned in
evolution, dominated by the law of cause and effect, because in himself he is
that very law, showing moreover on this plane varieties of force of character,
capacity, and opportunity, his very presence must be explained, while the
differences noted have to be accounted for. The doctrine of reincarnation does
all this. It means that man as a thinker, composed of soul, mind and spirit,
occupies body after body in life after life on the earth which is the scene of
his evolution, and where he must, under the very laws of his being, complete
that evolution, once it has been begun. In any one life he is known to others as
a personality, but in the whole stretch of eternity he is one individual,
feeling in himself an identity not dependent on name, form, or recollection.
This doctrine is the
very base of Theosophy, for it explains life and nature. It is one aspect of
evolution, for as it is re-embodiment in meaning, and as evolution could not go
on without re-embodiment, it is evolution itself, as applied to the human soul.
But it is also a doctrine believed in at the time given to Jesus and taught in
the early ages of Christianity, being now as much necessary to that religion as
it is to any other to explain texts, to reconcile the justice of God with the
rough and merciless aspect of nature and life to most mortals, and to throw a
light perceptible by reason on all the problems that vex us in our journey
through this world. The vast, and under any other doctrine unjust, difference
between the savage and the civilized man as to both capacity, character, and
opportunity can be understood only through this doctrine, and coming to our own
stratum the differences of the same kind may only thus be explained. It
vindicates Nature and God, and removes from religion the blot thrown by men who
have postulated creeds which paint the creator as a demon. Each man's life and
character are the outcome of his previous lives and thoughts. Each is his own
judge, his own executioner, for it is his own hand that forges the weapon which
works for his punishment, and each by his own life reaches reward, rises to
heights of knowledge and power for the good of all who may
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be left behind him. Nothing is left to chance, favor, or partiality, but all is
under the governance of law. Man is a thinker, and by his thoughts he makes the
causes for woe or bliss; for his thoughts produce his acts. He is the centre for
any disturbance of the universal harmony, and to him as the centre the
disturbance must return so as to bring about equilibrium, for nature always
works towards harmony. Man is always carrying on a series of thoughts, which
extend back to the remote past, continually making action and reaction. He is
thus responsible for all his thoughts and acts, and in that his complete
responsibility is established; his own spirit is the essence of this law and
provides for ever compensation for every disturbance and adjustment for all
effects. This is the law of Karma or justice, sometimes called the ethical law
of causation. It is not foreign to the Christian scriptures, for both Jesus and
St. Paul clearly enunciated it. Jesus said we should be judged as we gave
judgment and should receive the measure meted to others. St. Paul said:
"Brethren, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that
also shall he reap." And that sowing and reaping can only be possible under the
doctrines of Karma and reincarnation.
But what of death and
after? Is heaven a place or is it not? Theosophy teaches, as may be found in all
sacred books, that after death the soul reaps a rest. This is from its own
nature. It is a thinker, and cannot during life fulfill and carry out all nor
even a small part of the myriads of thoughts entertained. Hence when at death it
casts off the body and the astral body, and is released from the passions and
desires, its natural forces have immediate sway and it thinks its thoughts out
on the soul plane, clothed in a finer body suitable to that existence. This is
called Devachan. It is the very state that has brought about the descriptions of
heaven common to all religions, but this doctrine is very clearly put in the
Buddhist and Hindu religions. It is a time of rest, because the physical body
being absent the consciousness is not in the completer touch with visible nature
which is possible on the material plane. But it is a real existence, and no more
illusionary than earth life; it
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is where the essence of the thoughts of life that were as high as character
permitted, expands and is garnered by the soul and mind. When the force of these
thoughts is fully exhausted the soul is drawn back once more to earth, to that
environment which is sufficiently like unto itself to give it the proper further
evolution. This alternation from state to state goes on until the being rises
from repeated experiences above ignorance, and realizes in itself the actual
unity of all spiritual beings. Then it passes on to higher and greater steps on
the evolutionary road.
No new ethics are
presented by Theosophy, as it is held that right ethics are for ever the same.
But in the doctrines of Theosophy are to be found the philosophical and
reasonable basis for ethics and the natural enforcement of them in practice.
Universal brotherhood is that which will result in doing unto others as you
would have them do unto you, and in your loving your neighbour as yourself -
declared as right by all teachers in the great religions of the world.

WILLIAM
Q JUDGE Lucifer,
December, 1893

THE
APPLICATION OF THEOSOPHICAL THEORIES

The
mistake is being made by a great many persons, among them being Theosophists, of
applying several of the doctrines current in Theosophical literature, to only
one or two phases of a question or to only one thing at a time, limiting rules
which have universal application to a few cases, when in fact all those
doctrines which have been current in the East for so long a time should be
universally applied. For instance, take the law of Karma. Some people say, "yes,
we believe in that," but they only apply it to human beings. They consider it
only in its relation to their own acts or to the acts of all men. Sometimes they
fail to see that it has its effect not only on themselves and their fellows, but
as well on the greatest of Mahatmas. Those great Beings are not exempt from it;
in fact they are, so to say, more bound by it than we are. Although they are
said to be above Karma, this is only to be taken to mean that, having
escaped from the wheel of Samsara (which means the wheel of life and death, or
rebirths), and in that sense are above Karma, at the same time we will find them
often unable to act in a given case. Why? If they have transcended Karma, how
can it be possible that in any instance they may not break the law, or perform
certain acts which to us seem to be proper at just that juncture? Why can they
not, say in the case of a chela who has worked for them and for the cause, for
years with the most exalted unselfishness, interfere and save him from suddenly
falling or being overwhelmed by horrible misfortune; or interfere to help or
direct a movement? It is because they have become part of the great law of Karma
itself. It would be impossible for them to lift a finger.

Again, we know that at a certain period of progress, far
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above this sublunary world, the adept reaches a point when he may, if he so
chooses, formulate a wish that he might be one of the Devas, one of
that bright host of beings of whose pleasure, glory and power we can have no
idea. The mere formulation of the wish is enough. At that moment he becomes one
of the Devas. He then for a period of time which in its extent is
incalculable, enjoys that condition--then what? Then he has to begin again low
down in the scale, in a mode and for a purpose which it would be useless to
detail here, because it could not be understood, and also because I am not able
to put it in any language with which I am conversant. In this, then, is not this
particular adept who thus fell, subject to the law of Karma?

There is in the Hindoo books a pretty story which illustrates this. A certain
man heard that every day a most beautiful woman rose up out of the sea, and
combed her hair. He resolved that he would go to see her. He went, and she rose
up as usual. He sprang into the sea behind her, and with her went down
to her abode. There he lived with her for a vast length of time. One day she
said she had to go away and stated that he must not touch a picture which was on
the wall, and then departed. In a few days, fired by curiosity, he went to look
at the picture; saw that it was an enameled one of a most ravishingly beautiful
person, and he put out his hand to touch it. At that moment the foot of the
figure suddenly enlarged, flew out from the frame, and sent him back to the
scenes of earth, where he met with only sorrow and trouble.

The
law of Karma must be applied to everything. Nothing is exempt from it. It rules
the vital molecule from plant up to Brahma himself. Apply it then to the
vegetable, animal and human kingdom alike.

another law is that of Reincarnation. This is not to be confined only to the
souls and bodies of men. Why not use it for every branch of nature to which it
may be applicable? Not only are we, men and women, reincarnated; but also every
molecule of which our bodies are composed. In what way, then, can we connect
this rule with all of our thoughts? Does
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it apply there? It seems to me that it does, and with as much force as anywhere.
Each thought is of definite length. It does not last for over what we may call
an instant, but the time of its duration is in fact much shorter. It springs
into life and then it dies; but it is at once reborn in the form of another
thought. And thus the process goes on from moment to moment, from hour to hour,
from day to day. And each one of these reincarnated thoughts lives its life,
some good, some bad, some so terrible in their nature that if we could see them
we would shrink back in affright. Further than that, a number of these thoughts
form themselves into a certain idea, and it dies to be reincarnated in its time.
Thus on rolls this vast flood. Will it overwhelm us? It may; it often does. Let
us then make our thoughts pure. Our thoughts are the matrix, the mine, the
fountain, the source of all that we are and of all that we may be.

WILLIAM
Q. JUDGE

The
Occult Word, May, 1886

UNIVERSAL APPLICATIONS OF DOCTRINE

DURING the last few
years in which so much writing has been done in the theosophical field of
effort, a failure to make broad or universal applications of the doctrines
brought forward can be noticed. With the exception of H. P. Blavatsky, our
writers have confined themselves to narrow views, chiefly as to the state of man
after death or how Karma affects him in life. As to the latter law, the greatest
consideration has been devoted to deciding how it modifies our pleasure or our
pain, and then as to whether in Devachan there will be compensation for failures
of Karma; while others write upon reincarnation as if only mankind were subject
to that law. And the same limited treatment is adopted in treating of or
practicing many other theories and doctrines of the Wisdom Religion.
After
fourteen years of activity it is now time that the members of our society should
make universal the application of each and every admitted doctrine or precept,
and not confine them to their own selfish selves.
In order to make my
meaning clear I purpose in this paper to attempt an outline of how such
universal applications of some of our doctrines should be made.
Before taking up any
of these I would draw the attention of those who believe in the Upanishads
to the constant insistence throughout those sacred books upon the identity
of man with Brahma, or God, or nature, and to the universal application of all
doctrines or laws.
p.12
In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad(1) it is
said:
Tell me the Brahman
which is visible, not invisible, the atman who is within all?
This, thy Self who is
within all. . . . He who breathes in the up-breathing, he is thy Self and within
all. He who breathes in the down-breathing, he is thy Self and within all. He
who breathes in the on-breathing, he is thy Self and within all. This is thy
Self who is within all.
The 6th Brahmana is
devoted to showing that all the worlds are woven in and within each other; and
in the 7th the teacher declares that "the puller" or mover in all things
whatsoever is the same Self which is in each man.
The questioners then
proceed and draw forth the statement that "what is above the heavens, beneath
the earth, embracing heaven and earth, past, present, and future, that is woven,
like warp and woof, in the ether," and that the ether is "woven like warp and
woof in the Imperishable." If this be so, then any law that affects man must
govern every portion of the universe in which he lives.
And we find these
sturdy men of old applying their doctrines in every direction. They use the laws
of analogy and correspondences to solve deep questions. Why need we be behind
them? If the entire great Self dwells in man, the body in all its parts must
symbolize the greater world about. So we discover that space having sound as its
distinguishing characteristic is figured in the human frame by the ear, as fire
is by the eye, and, again, the eye showing forth the soul, for the soul alone
conquers death, and that which in the Upanishads conquers death is
fire.
It is possible in
this manner to proceed steadily toward the acquirement of a knowledge of the
laws of nature, not only those that are recondite, but also the more easily
perceived. If we grant that the human body and organs are a figure, in little,
of the universe, then let us ask the question, "By what is the astral light
symbolized?" By the eye, and specially by the retina and its mode of action. On
the astral light are received the pictures of all events and things, and on the
retina are received
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the images of objects passing before the man. We find that these images on the
retina remain for a specific period, capable of measurement, going through
certain changes before fading completely away. Let us extend the result of this
observation to the astral light, and we assume that it also goes through similar
changes in respect to the pictures. From this it follows that the mass or
totality of pictures made during any cycle must, in this great retina, have a
period at the end of which they will have faded away. Such we find is the law as
stated by those who know the Secret Doctrine. In order to arrive at the figures
with which to represent this period, we have to calculate the proportion thus:
as the time of fading from the human retina is to the healthy mans actual due of
life, so is the time of fading from the astral light. The missing term may be
discovered by working upon the doctrine of the four yugas or ages and the length
of one life of Brahma.
Now these
theosophical doctrines which we have been at such pains to elaborate during all
the years of our history are either capable of universal application or they are
not. If they are not, then they are hardly worth the trouble we have bestowed
upon them; and it would then have been much better for us had we devoted
ourselves to some special departments of science.
But the great
allurement that theosophy holds for those who follow it is that its doctrines
are universal, solving all questions and applying to every department of nature
so far as we know it. And advanced students declare that the same universal
application prevails in regions far beyond the grasp of present science or of
the average mans mind. So that, if a supposed law or application is formulated
to us, either by ourselves or by some other person, we are at once able to prove
it; for unless it can be applied in every direction--by correspondence, or is
found to be one of the phases of some previously-admitted doctrine, we know that
it is false doctrine or inaccurately stated. Thus all our doctrines can be
proved and checked at every step. It is not necessary for us to have constant
communications with the Adepts in order to make sure of our ground;
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all that we have to do is to see if any position we assume agrees with
well-known principles already formulated and understood.
Bearing this in mind,
we can confidently proceed to examine the great ideas in which so many of us
believe, with a view of seeing how they may be applied in every direction. For
if, instead of selfishly considering these laws in their effect upon our
miserable selves, we ask how they apply everywhere, a means is furnished for the
broadening of our horizon and the elimination of selfishness. And when also we
apply the doctrines to all our acts and to all parts of the human being, we may
begin to wake ourselves up to the real task set before us.
Let us look at Karma.
It must be applied not only to the man but also to the Cosmos, to the globe upon
which he lives. You know that, for the want of an English word, the period of
one great day of evolution is called a Manwantara, or the reign of one Manu.
These eternally succeed each other. In other words, each one of us is a unit, or
a cell, if you please. in the great body or being of Manu, and just as we see
ourselves making Karma and reincarnating for the purpose of carrying off Karma,
so the great being Manu dies at the end of a Manwantara, and after the period of
rest reincarnates once more, the sum total of all that we have made him or it.
And when I say "we," I mean all the beings on whatever plane or planet who are
included in that Manwantara. Therefore this Manwantara is just exactly what the
last Manwantara made it, and so the next Manwantara after this millions of years
off-- will be the sum or result of this one, plus all that have preceded it.
How much have you
thought upon the effect of Karma upon the animals, the plants, the minerals, the
elemental beings? Have you been so selfish as to suppose that they are not
affected by you? Is it true that man himself has no responsibility upon him for
the vast numbers of ferocious and noxious animals, for the deadly serpents and
scorpions, the devastating lions and tigers, that make a howling wilderness of
some corners of the earth and terrorize the people of India and else-
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where? It cannot be true. But as the Apostle of the Christians said, it is true
that the whole of creation waits upon man and groans that he keeps back the
enlightenment of all. What happens when, with intention, you crush out the life
of a common croton bug? Well, it is destroyed and you forget it. But you brought
it to an untimely end, short though its life would have been. Imagine this being
done at hundreds of thousands of places in the State. Each of these little
creatures had life and energy; each some degree of intelligence. The sum total
of the effects of all these deaths of small things must be appreciable. If not,
then our doctrines are wrong and there is no wrong in putting out the life of a
human being.
Let us go a little
higher, to the bird kingdom and that of four-footed beasts. Every day in the
shooting season in England vast quantities of birds are killed for sport, and in
other places such intelligent and inoffensive animals as deer. These have a
higher intelligence than insects, a wider scope of feeling. Is there no effect
under Karma for all these deaths? And what is the difference between wantonly
killing a deer and murdering an idiot? Very little to my mind. Why is it, then,
that even delicate ladies will enjoy the recital of a bird or deer hunt? It is
their Karma that they are the descendants of long generations of Europeans who
some centuries ago, with the aid of the church, decided that animals had no
souls and therefore could be wantonly slaughtered. The same Karma permits the
grandson of the Queen of England who calls herself the defender of the faith--of
Jesus--to have great preparations made for his forth-coming visit to India to
the end that he shall enjoy several weeks of tiger-hunting, pig-sticking, and
the destruction of any and every bird that may fly in his way.
We therefore find
ourselves ground down by the Karma of our national stem, so that we are really
almost unable to tell what thoughts are the counterfeit presentments of the
thoughts of our forefathers, and what self-born in our own minds.
Let us now look at
Reincarnation, Devachan, and Karma.
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It has been the
custom of theosophists to think upon these subjects in respect only to the whole
man--that is to say, respecting the ego.
But what of its
hourly and daily application? If we believe in the doctrine of the One Life,
then every cell in these material bodies must be governed by the same laws. Each
cell must be a life and have its karma, devachan, and reincarnation.
Everyone of these cells upon incarnating among the others in our frame must be
affected by the character of those it meets; and we make that character. Every
thought upon reaching its period dies. It is soon reborn, and coming back from
its devachan it finds either bad or good companions provided for it. Therefore
every hour of life is fraught with danger or with help. How can it be possible
that a few hours a week devoted to theosophic thought and action can
counteract-- even in the gross material cells the effect of nearly a whole week
spent in indifference, frivolity, or selfishness? This mass of poor or bad
thought will form a resistless tide that shall sweep away all your good resolves
at the first opportunity.
This will explain why
devoted students often fail. They have waited for a particular hour or day to
try their strength, and when the hour came they had none. If it was anger they
had resolved to conquer, instead of trying to conquer it at an offered
opportunity they ran away from the chance so as to escape the trial; or they did
not meet the hourly small trials that would, if successfully passed, have given
them a great reserve of strength, so that no time of greater trial would have
been able to overcome them.
Now as to the theory
of the evolution of the macrocosm in its application to the microcosm, man.
The hermetic
philosophy held that man is a copy of the greater universe; that he is a little
universe in himself, governed by the same laws as the great one, and in the
small proportions of a human being showing all those greater laws in operation,
only reduced in time or sweep. This is the rule to which H. P. Blavatsky
adheres, and which is found running through all the ancient mysteries and
initiations.
p.17
It is said that our universe is a collection of atoms or molecules--called also
"lives"; living together and through each the spirit struggles to reach
consciousness, and that this struggle is governed by a law compelling it to go
on in or between periods. In any period of such struggle some of these atoms or
collections of molecules are left over, as it were, to renew the battle in the
next period, and hence the state of the universe at any time of manifestation or
the state of each newly-manifested universe--must be the result of what was done
in the preceding period.
Coming down to the
man, we find that he is a collection of molecules or lives or cells,
each striving with the other, and all affected for either good or bad results by
the spiritual aspirations or want of them in the man who is the guide or god, so
to say, of his little universe. When he is born, the molecules or cells or lives
that are to compose his physical and astral forms are from that moment under his
reign, and during the period of his smaller life they pass through a small
manvantara just as the lives in the universe do, and when he dies he leaves them
all impressed with the force and color of his thoughts and aspirations, ready to
be used in composing the houses of other egos.
Now here is a great
responsibility revealed to us of a double character.
The first is for
effects produced on and left in what we call matter in the molecules, when they
come to be used by other egos, for they must act upon the latter for benefit or
the reverse.
The second is for the
effect on the molecules themselves in this, that there are lives or entities in
all--or rather they are all lives--who are either aided or retarded in their
evolution by reason of the proper or improper use man made of this matter that
was placed in his charge.
Without stopping to
argue about what matter is, it will be sufficient to state that it is held to be
co-eternal with what is called "spirit." That is, as it is put in the
Bhagavad-Gita: "He
p.18
who is spirit is also matter." Or, in other words, spirit is the opposite pole
to matter of the Absolute. But of course this matter we speak of is not what we
see about us, for the latter is only in fact phenomena of matter: even science
holds that we do not really see matter.
Now during a
manvantara or period of manifestation, the egos incarnating must use over and
over again in any world upon which they are incarnating the matter that belongs
to it.
So, therefore, we are
now using in our incarnations matter that has been used by ourselves and other
egos over and over again, and are affected by the various tendencies impressed
in it. And, similarly, we are leaving behind us for future races that which will
help or embarrass them in their future lives.
This is a highly
important matter, whether reincarnation be a true doctrine or not. For if each
new nation is only a mass of new egos or souls, it must be much affected by the
matter-environment left behind by nations and races that have disappeared
forever.
But for us who
believe in reincarnation it has additional force, showing us one strong reason
why universal brotherhood should be believed in and practised.
The other branch of
the responsibility is just as serious. The doctrine that removes death from the
universe and declares that all is composed of innumerable lives, constantly
changing places with each other, contains in it of necessity the theory that man
himself is full of these lives and that all are traveling up the long road of
evolution.
The secret doctrine
holds that we are full of kingdoms of entities who depend upon us, so to say,
for salvation.
How enormous, then,
is this responsibility, that we not only are to be judged for what we do with
ourselves as a whole, but also for what we do for those unseen beings who are
dependent upon us for light.

W.Q.J. Path,
October, 1889

WHICH IS VAGUE, THEOSOPHY OR SCIENCE?

IT is commonly
charged against the exponents of Theosophy that they deal in vague generalities
only. A lecture is given or paper read by a Theosophist, and the profane hearer
laughs, saying, "All this is metaphysical absurdity; these are mere
abstractions; let us have something like that which science gives us, something
we can grasp."
A great many persons
imagine, knowing but little in reality about science, that it is sure, certain,
and fixed in the vital premises which underlie the practical outcome seen in
many branches of life's activity. Why is this so? An inquiry into the question
discloses the fact that some, if not all, the basic postulates of science are
the purest abstractions, and that many statements from which deductions of fact
are drawn are themselves the merest hypotheses. We will also find that the
commonest of people unconsciously use in every work-a-day acts the most abstract
and indefinite premises without which they could do but little.
Take navigation of
the ocean, by which we are able to send the largest ships carrying the richest
of cargoes from shore to shore of any sea. These are guided in their course by
men who know little or nothing of Theosophy and who would laugh at metaphysics.
But in order to safely carry the ship from departure to destination, they have
to use the lines of longitude and latitude, which, while seeming very real to
them, have no existence whatever, except in theory. These lines must be used,
and, if not, the ship will strike a rock or run upon the shore. Where are the
parallels of longitude and latitude? They are imagined to be on the earth, but
their only visible existence
p.20
is upon the chart made by man, and their real existence is in the mind of the
astronomer and those who understand the science of navigation. The sea captain
may think they are on the chart, or he may not think of it at all. Where do they
stop? Nowhere; they are said to extend indefinitely into space; yet these
abstractions are used for present human commercial needs. Is this any less vague
than Theosophy?
In the latter we have
to guide the great human ship from shore to shore, and in that immense journey
are obliged to refer to abstractions from which to start. Our spiritual
parallels of latitude and longitude are abstractions, indeed, but no more so
than those laid down upon the seamans chart. The scientific materialist says:
"What nonsense to speak of coming out of the Absolute!" We may reply, "What
nonsense for the mariner to attempt to guide his ship by that which has no
existence whatever, except in fancy; by that which is a pure abstraction!" Again
he laughs at us for assuming that there is such a thing as the soul, "for," he
says, "no man has ever seen it, and none ever can; it cannot be demonstrated."
With perfect truth we can reply: "Where is the atom of science; who has ever
seen it; where and when has its existence been demonstrated?" The "atom" of
science is today as great a mystery as the "soul" of Theosophy. It is a pure
hypothesis, undemonstrated and undemonstrable. It can neither be weighed, nor
measured, nor found with a microscope: indeed, in the opinion of many
Theosophists it is a far greater mystery than the soul, because some say they
have seen that which may be soul; which looks like it; and no man has been, at
any time, so fortunate or unfortunate as to have seen an atom.
Further, the
scientific materialist says, "What do you know about the powers of the soul,
which you say is the central sun of the human system?" And we answer that "it is
no more indefinite for us than the sun is for the astronomers who attempt to
measure its heat and estimate its distance. As to the heat of the sun, not all
are agreed that it has any heat whatever, for some learned men think that it is
a source of an energy which creates heat when it reaches the earths atmosphere
only.
p.21
Others, celebrated in the records of science, such as Newton, Fizeau, and many
other well-known astronomers, disagree as to the quantity of heat thrown out by
the sun, on the hypothesis that it has any heat, and that difference is so great
as to reach 8,998,600 degrees. Thus as to the central sun of this system, there
is the greatest vagueness in science and no agreement as to what may be the
truth in this important matter. In Theosophy, however, on the other hand,
although there is some vagueness with mere students as to the exact quantity of
heat or light thrown out by the soul, those who have devoted more time to its
study are able to give closer estimates than any which have been given by
scientific men in respect to the sun of the solar system. Yet all these
generalities of science are the very things that have led to the present
wonderful material development of the nineteenth century.
But let us glance for
a moment at the subject of evolution, which engages the thought of materialist
and theosophist alike; let us see if theosophy is more vague than its opponents,
or more insane, we might say, in ability to lay wild theories before intelligent
men. The well-known Haeckel in his Pedigree of Man says, in speaking of
Darwins teachings and lauding them: "Darwin puts in the place of a conscious
creative force, building and arranging the organic bodies of animals and plants
on a designed plan, a series of natural forces working blindly, or we
say, without aim, without design. In place of an arbitrary act we have
a necessary law of evolution. . . . A mechanical origin of the earliest
living form was held as the necessary sequence of Darwins teaching." Here
we have blind, undesigning forces, beginning work without design, haphazard, all
being jumbled together, but finally working out into a beautiful design visible
in the smallest form we can see. There is not a single proof in present life
whether mineral, vegetable, or animal, that such a result from such a beginning
could by any possibility eventuate. But these scientific men in those matters
are safe in making hypotheses, because the time is far in the dark of history
when these blind, undesigning acts were begun. Yet they ought to show
some present instances
p.22
of similar blindness producing harmonious designs. Now is this not a wild,
fanciful, and almost insane statement of Haeckel's? Is it not ten times more
absurd than theosophical teachings? We begin truly with Parabrahmam and
Mulaprakriti and Hosts of Dhyan Chohans, but we allege design in everything, and
our Parabrahmam is no more vague than motion or force, pets of science.
So I have found that
a slight examination of this question reveals science as more vague than
Theosophy is in anything. But some may say results are not indefinite. The same
is said by us, the results to be reached by following the doctrines of
theosophy, relating, as they do, to our real life, will be as definite, as
visible, as important as any that science can point to.

EUSEBIO URBAN
Path, November, 1890

THE SYNTHESIS OF OCCULT SCIENCE

I

THE
impassable gulf between mind and matter discovered by modern science is a
logical result of the present methods of so-called scientific investigation.
These methods are analytical and hypothetical, and the results arrived at are
necessarily tentative and incomplete. Even the so-called "Synthetic Philosophy"
of Spencer is, at best, an effort to grasp the entire method and modulus of
nature within one of its processes only. The aim is at synthesis, but it can
hardly deserve the name of philosophy, for it is purely speculative and
hypothetical. It is as though the physiologist undertook to study the function
of respiration in man through the single process of expiration, ignoring the
fact that every expiratory act must be supplemented by inspiration or
respiration cease altogether.

Taking, therefore,
the facts of experience derived from the phenomena of nature and viewing both
cosmic and organic processes purely from their objective side, the "missing
links," ''impassable gulfs, and "unthinkable gaps occur constantly. Not so in
Occult Science. So far as the science of occultism is concerned, it is both
experimental and analytical, but it acknowledges no "missing links," "impassable
gulfs," or "unthinkable gaps," because it finds none. Back of occult science
there lies a complete and all-embracing Philosophy. This philosophy is not
simply synthetical in its methods, for the simplest as the wildest hypothesis
can claim that much; but it is synthesis itself. It regards Nature as
one complete whole, and so the student of occultism may stand at either point of
observation. He may from the stand-point of Nature's wholeness
p.24
and completeness follow the process of segregation and differentiation to the
minutest atom conditioned in space and time; or, from the phenomenal display of
the atom, he may reach forward and upward till the atom becomes an integral part
of cosmos, involved in the universal harmony of creation. The modern scientist
may do this incidentally or empirically, but the occultist does it
systematically and habitually, and hence philosophically. The modern scientist
is confessedly and boastfully agnostic. The occultist is reverently and
progressively gnostic.

Modern science
recognizes matter as "living" and "dead," "organic" and "inorganic," and "Life"
as merely a phenomenon of matter. Occult science recognizes, "foremost of all,
the postulate that there is no such thing in Nature as inorganic
substances or bodies. Stones, minerals, rocks, and even chemical 'atoms'
are simply organic units in profound lethargy. Their coma has an end, and
their inertia becomes activity." (Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 626 fn.)
Occultism recognizes ONE UNIVERSAL, ALL-PERVADING LIFE. Modern science
recognizes life as a special phenomenon of matter, a mere transient
manifestation due to temporary conditions. Even logic and analogy ought to have
taught us better, for the simple reason that so-called "inorganic" or "dead"
matter constantly becomes organic and living, while matter from the organic
plane is continually being reduced to the inorganic. How rational and
justifiable, then, to suppose that the capacity or "potency" of life is latent
in all matter!

The "elements,"
"atoms," and "molecules" of modern science, partly physical and partly
metaphysical, though altogether hypothetical, are, nevertheless, seldom
philosophical, for the simple reason that they are regarded solely as
phenomenal. The Law of Avogadro involved a generalization as to physical
structure and number, and the later experiments of Prof. Neumann deduced the
same law mathematically from the first principles of the mechanical theory of
gases, but it remained for Prof. Crookes to perceive the philosophical necessity
of a primordial substratum, protyle, and so, as pointed
p.25
out in the Secret Doctrine, to lay the foundations of "Metachemistry";
in other words, a complete philosophy of physics and chemistry that shall
take the place of mere hypothesis and empiricism, if one or two generalizations
deduced as logical or mathematical necessities from the phenomena of physics and
c hemistry have been able to work such revolutions in the old chemistry, what may
we not expect from a complete synthesis that shall grasp universals by a law
that compasses the whole domain of matter? And yet this complete synthesis has
been in the possession of the true occultist for ages. Glimpses of this
philosophy have been sufficient to give to minds like Kepler, Descartes,
Leibnitz, Kant, Schopenhauer, and, lastly, to Prof. Crookes, ideas that claimed
and held the interested attention of the scientific world. While, at certain
points, such writers supplement and corroborate each other, neither anywhere nor
altogether do they reveal the complete synthesis, for none of them possessed it,
and yet it has all along existed.

"Let the reader
remember these 'Monad's of Leibnitz, every one of which is a living mirror of
the universe, every monad reflecting every other, and compare this view and
definition with certain Sanskrit stanzas (Slokas) translated by Sir
William Jones, in which it is said that the creative source of the Divine Mind,
. . . 'Hidden in a veil of thick darkness, formed mirrors of the atoms
of the world, and cast reflection from its own face on every atom'."--S.D.,
Vol. 1, p. 623.

It may be humiliating
to "Modern Exact Science" and repugnant to the whole of Christendom to have to
admit that the Pagans whom they have despised, and the "Heathen Scriptures" they
long ridiculed or ignored, nevertheless possess a fund of wisdom never dreamed
of under Western skies. They have the lesson, however, to learn, that Science by
no means originated in, nor is it confined to, the West, nor are superstition
and ignorance confined to the East.

It can easily be
shown that every real discovery and every important advancement in modern
science have already been anticipated centuries ago by ancient science and
philosophy. It is true that these ancient doctrines have been embodied in
p.26
unknown languages and symbols, and recorded in books inaccessible to western
minds till a very recent date. Far beyond all this inaccessibility, however, as
a cause preventing these old truths from reaching modern times, has been the
prejudice, the scorn and contempt of ancient learning manifested by the leaders
of modern thought.

Nor is the lesson yet
learned that bigotry and scorn are never the mark of wisdom or the harbingers of
learning; for still, with comparatively few exceptions, any claim or discussion
of these ancient doctrines is met with contempt and scorn. The record has,
however, been at least outlined and presented to the world. As the authors of
the Secret Doctrine have remarked, these doctrines may not be largely
accepted by the present generation, but during the twentieth century they will
become known and appreciated.

The scope and bearing
of philosophy itself are hardly yet appreciated by modern thought, because of
its materialistic tendency. A complete science of metaphysics and a complete
philosophy of science are not yet even conceived of as possible; hence the
ancient wisdom by its very vastness has escaped recognition in modern times.
That the authors of ancient wisdom have spoken from at least two whole planes of
conscious experience beyond that of our every-day "sense-perception" is to us
inconceivable, and yet such is the fact; and why should the modern advocate of
evolution be shocked and staggered by such a disclosure? It but justifies his
hypothesis and extends its theatre. Is it because the present custodians of this
ancient learning do not scramble for recognition on the stock exchange, and
enter into competition in the marts of the world? If the practical outcome of
such competition needed illustration, Mr. Keely might serve as an example. The
discoveries of the age are already whole centuries in advance of its ethical
culture, and the knowledge that should place still further power in the hands of
a few individuals whose ethical code is below, rather than above, that of the
ignorant, toiling, suffering masses, could only minister to anarchy and increase
oppression. On these higher planes of consciousness the law of prog-
p.27
ress is absolute; knowledge and power go hand in hand with beneficence to man,
not alone to the individual possessors of wisdom, but to the whole human race.
The custodians of the higher knowledge are equally by both motive and
development almoners of the divine. These are the very conditions of the higher
consciousness referred to. The synthesis of occult science becomes, therefore,
the higher synthesis of the faculties of man. What matter, therefore, if the
ignorant shall scout its very existence, or treat it with ridicule and contempt?
Those who know of its existence and who have learned something of its scope and
nature can, in their turn, afford to smile, but with pity and sorrow at the
willing bondage to ignorance and misery that scorns enlightenment and closes its
eyes to the plainest truths of experience.

Leaving, for the
present, the field of physics and cosmogenesis, it may be profitable to consider
some of the applications of these doctrines to the functions and life of man.

The intellect derived
from philosophy
is similar to a charioteer; for it
is present with our desires, and
always conducts them to the beautiful.

--DEMOPHILUS

II

"In reality, as
Occult philosophy teaches us, everything which changes is organic; it has the
life principle in it, and it has all the potentiality of the higher lives. If,
as we say, all in nature is an aspect of the one element, and life is universal,
how can there be such a thing as an inorganic atom!"(1) Man is a perfected
animal, but before he could have reached perfection even on the animal plane,
there must have dawned upon him the light of a higher plane. Only the perfected
animal can cross the threshold of the next higher, or the human plane, and as he
does so there shines upon him the ray from the suprahuman plane. Therefore, as
the dawn of humanity illumines the animal plane, and as a guiding star lures the
Monad to higher consciousness, so the dawn of divinity illumines the
(1) Quotations are from the Secret Doctrine and other writings of H. P. Blavatsky.
p.28
human plane, luring the monad to the supra-human plane of consciousness. This is
neither more nor less than the philosophical and metaphysical aspect of the law
of evolution. Man has not one principle more than the tiniest insect; he is,
however, "the vehicle of a fully developed Monad, self-conscious and
deliberately following its own line of progress, whereas in the insect, and even
the higher animal, the higher triad of principles is absolutely dormant." The
original Monad has, therefore, locked within it the potentiality of
divinity. It is plainly, therefore, a misnomer to call that process of thought a
"Synthetic Philosophy" that deals only with phenomena and ends with matter on
the physical plane. These two generalizations of Occult philosophy, endowing
every atom with the potentiality of life, and regarding every insect or animal
as already possessing the potentialities of the higher planes though these
powers are yet dormant, add to the ordinary Spencerian theory of evolution
precisely that element that it lacks, viz, the metaphysical and
philosophical; and, thus endowed, the theory becomes synthetical.

The Monad,
then, is essentially and potentially the same in the lowest vegetable organism,
up through all forms and gradations of animal life to man, and beyond.
There is a gradual unfolding of its potentialities from "Monera" to man, and
there are two whole planes of consciousness, the sixth and the seventh "senses,"
not yet unfolded to the average humanity. Every monad that is enclosed in a
form, and hence limited by matter, becomes conscious on its own plane and in its
own degree. Consciousness, therefore, no less than sensitiveness, belongs to
plants as well as to animals. Self-consciousness belongs to man, because, while
embodied in a form, the higher triad of principles, Atma-Buddhi-Manas,
is no longer dormant, but active. This activity is, however, far from being
fully developed. When this activity has become fully developed, man will already
have become conscious on a still higher plane, endowed with the sixth and the
opening of the seventh sense, and will have become a "god" in the sense
given to that term by Plato and his followers.
p.29
In thus giving this
larger and completer meaning to the law of evolution, the Occult philosophy
entirely eliminates the "missing links" of modern science, and, by giving to man
a glimpse of his nature and destiny, not only points out the line of the higher
evolution, but puts him in possession of the means of achieving it.

The "atoms" and
"monads" of the Secret Doctrine are very different from the atoms and molecules
of modern science. To the latter these are mere particles of matter endowed with
blind force: to the former, they are the "dark nucleoles," and potentially
"Gods," conscious and intelligent from their primeval embodiment at the
beginning of differentiation in the dawn of the Manvantara. There are no longer
any hard and fast lines between the "organic" and the "inorganic"; between the
"living" and "dead" matter. Every atom is endowed with and moved by
intelligence, and is conscious in its own degree, on its own plane of
development. This is a glimpse of the One Life that--

Runs through all
time, extends through all extent,
Lives undivided, operates unspent.

It may be conceived
that the "Ego" in man is a monad that has gathered to itself innumerable
experiences through aeons of time, slowly unfolding its latent potencies through
plane after plane of matter. It is hence called the "eternal pilgrim."

The Manasic,
or mind principle, is cosmic and universal. It is the creator of all forms, and
the basis of all law in nature. Not so with consciousness. Consciousness is a
condition of the monad as the result of embodiment in matter and the dwelling in
a physical form. Self-consciousness, which from the animal plane looking upward
is the beginning of perfection, from the divine plane looking downward is the
perfection of selfishness and the curse of separateness. It is the "world of
illusion" that man has created for himself. "Maya is the perceptive faculty of
every Ego which considers itself a Unit, separate from and independent of the
One Infinite and Eternal Sat or 'be-ness." The "eternal pilgrim" must therefore
mount higher, and flee from the plane of self-consciousness it has struggled so
hard to reach.
p.30
The complex structure that we call "Man" is made up of a congeries of almost
innumerable "Lives." Not only every microscopic cell of which the tissues are
composed, but the molecules and atoms of which these cells are composed, are
permeated with the essence of the "One Life." Every so-called organic cell is
known to have its nucleus, a center of finer or more sensitive matter. The
nutritive, all the formative and functional processes consist of flux and
re-flux, of inspiration and expiration, to and from the nucleus.

The nucleus is
therefore in its own degree and after its kind a "monad" imprisoned in a "form."
Every microscopic cell, therefore, has a consciousness and an intelligence of
its own, and man thus consists of innumerable "lives." This is but physiological
synthesis, logically deduced no less from the known facts in physiology and
histology than the logical sequence of the philosophy of occultism. Health of
the body as a whole depends on the integrity of all its parts, and more
especially upon their harmonious association and cooperation. A diseased tissue
is one in which a group of individual cells refuse to cooperate, and wherein is
set up discordant action, using less or claiming more than their due share of
food or energy. Disease of the very tissue of mans body is neither more nor less
than the "sin of separateness." Moreover, the grouping of cells is upon the
principle of hierarchies. Smaller groups are subordinate to larger congeries,
and these again are subordinate to larger, or to the whole. Every microscopic
cell therefore typifies and epitomizes man, as man is an epitome of the
Universe. As already remarked, the "Eternal Pilgrim," the Alter-Ego in man, is a
monad progressing through the ages. By right and by endowment the ego is king in
the domain of mans bodily life. It descended into matter in the cosmic process
till it reached the mineral plane, and then journeyed upward through the "three
kingdoms" till it reached the human plane. The elements of its being, like the
cells and molecules of mans body, are groupings of structures accessory or
subordinate to it. The human monad or Ego is therefore akin to all below it and
heir to all above it, linked by indissoluble bonds
p.31
to spirit and matter, "God" and "Nature." The attributes that it gathers, and
the faculties that it unfolds, are but the latent and dormant potentialities
awaking to conscious life. The tissue cells constitute mans bodily structure,
but the order in which they are arranged, the principle upon which they are
grouped, constituting the human form, is not simply an evolved shape
from the lower animal plane, but an involved principle from a higher
plane, an older world, viz, the "Lunar Pitris." "Hanuman the Monkey" antedates
Darwins "missing link" by thousands of millenniums. So also the Manasic,
or mind element, with its cosmic and infinite potentialities, is not merely
the developed "instinct" of the animal. Mind is the latent or active
potentiality of Cosmic Ideation, the essence of every form, the basis
of every law, the potency of every principle in the universe. Human thought is
the reflection or reproduction in the realm of mans consciousness of these
forms, laws, and principles. Hence man senses and apprehends nature just as
nature unfolds in him. When, therefore, the Monad has passed through the form of
the animal ego, involved and unfolded the human form, the higher triad of
principles awakens from the sleep of ages and over-shadowed by the "Manasa-putra"
and built into its essence and substance. How could man epitomize
Cosmos if he did not touch it at every point and involve it in every principle?
If mans being is woven in the web of destiny, his potencies and possibilities
take hold of divinity as the woof and pattern of his boundless life. Why, then,
should he grow weary or disheartened? Alas! why should he be degraded, this heir
of all things!

The peculiarity also
of this theology, and in which its transcendency consists, is this, that it does
not consider the highest God to be the principle of beings, but the
principle of principles, i.e. of deiform processions from itself, all which
are eternally rooted in the unfathomable depths of the immensely great source of
their existence, and of which they may be called super-sensuous ramifications and
super-luminous blossoms.

--Thomas Taylor.
Introduction to Mystical Hymns of Orpheus

p.32

III

It has often been
thought a strange thing that there are no dogmas and no creed in Theosophy or
Occultism. Is theosophy a religion? is often asked. No, it is religion. Is it a philosophy? No, it is philosophy. Is
it a science? No, it is science. If a consensus of religion,
philosophy, and science is possible, and if it has ever been reached in human
thought, that thought must long since have passed the boundaries of all creeds
and ceased to dogmatize. Hence comes the difficulty in answering questions. No
proposition stands apart or can be taken separately without limiting and often
distorting its meaning. Every proposition has to be considered and held as
subservient to the synthetic whole. Really intelligent people, capable of
correct reasoning, often lack sufficient interest to endeavor to apprehend the
universality of these principles. They expect, where they have any interest at
all in the subject, to be told "all about it" in an hours conversation, or to
learn it from a column in some newspaper; all about man, all about Nature, all
about Deity; and then either to reject it or to make it a part of their previous
creed. These are really no wiser than the penny-a-liner who catches some point
and turns it into ridicule, or makes it a butt for coarse jest or silly sarcasm,
and then complacently imagines that he has demolished the whole structure! If
such persons were for one moment placed face to face with their own folly, they
would be amazed. The most profound thinker and the most correct reasoner might
well afford to devote a life-time to the apprehension of the philosophy of
occultism, and other life-times to mastering the scientific details, while at
the same time his ethics and his religious life are made consistent with the
principle of altruism and the Brotherhood of man. If this be regarded as too
hard a task, it is, nevertheless, the line of the higher evolution of man, and,
soon or late, every soul must follow it, retrograde, or cease to be.

Man is but a link in
an endless chain of being; a sequence of a past eternity of causes and
processes; a potentiality born into time, but spanning two eternities, his past
and his future, and
p.33
in his consciousness these are all one, Duration, the ever-present. In
a former article man was shown to be a series of almost innumerable "Lives," and
these lives, these living entities called "cells," were shown to be associated
together on the principle of hierarchies, grouped according to rank and order,
service and development, and this was shown to be the "physical synthesis" of
man, and the organic synthesis as well. Disease was also shown to be the organic
nutritive, or physiological "sin of separateness." Every department of man's
being, every organ and cell of his body, was also shown to possess a
consciousness and an intelligence of its own, held, however, subordinate to the
whole. In health every action is synchronous and rhythmical, however varied and
expanded, however intense and comprehensive. Enough is already known in modern
physics to justify all these statements, at least by analogy. The principle of
electrical induction and vibration, the quantitative and qualitative
transmission of vibration and its exact registration, and their application to
telegraphy, the telephone, and the phonograph, have upset all previous theories
of physics and physiology. "A metallic plate, for instance, can that talk like a
human being? Yea or nay? Mr. Bouillard--and he was no common man--said No; to
accept such a fact were to upset all our notions of physiology. So said Mr.
Bouillard, right in the face of Edison's
phonograph in full Academy, and he throttled the luckless interpreter of the
famous American inventor, accusing it of ventriloquism." (2)

Occultism teaches
that the Ego both precedes and survives the physical body. The phenomena of mans
life and the process of his thought can be apprehended and explained on no other
theory. Modern physiology teaches in detail certain facts regarding the life of
man. It, moreover, groups these facts and deduces certain so-called principles
and laws, but such a thing as a synthesis of the whole man is seldom
even attempted. "Psychology" is mere empiricism, represented by disjointed
facts, and these, of course, but little understood, and more often
misinterpreted.

(2) Dr. J. Oehorowicz, "Mental Suggestion," p. 291.

p.34
Ask the modern physiologist if man can think when unconscious, and he
will answer No; and if asked if man can be conscious and not think, he will as
readily answer No. Both answers will be based on what is known, or supposed to
be known, of memory. The idea that the real man, the Ego, is always conscious on
some plane, and that it "thinks," as we ordinarily use the term, only on the
lower plane through the physical brain, in terms of extension and duration, or
space and time, is seldom in the least apprehended by the modern physiologist.
If, however, one grasps the idea of the ego as the real man dwelling in the
physical body and using it as its instrument through which it is related to
space and time, perception, sensation, thought, and feeling, the gaps in
physiology and psychology begin to disappear. Here again it should be
particularly borne in mind that this doctrine of the ego must be considered in
the light of the complete synthesis of occultism, and just to the extent that
this is intelligently done will the significance of the ego appear.

The brief and concise
outline of the philosophy of occultism given in the Introduction to the
Secret Doctrine is therefore very significant, and the student who desires
to apprehend that which follows in these two large volumes ought to study this
outline very carefully. No subsequent proposition, no principle in the life of
man, can be correctly understood apart from it. The subject-matter following is
necessarily fragmentary, but the outline is both inclusive and philosophical,
and if one reasons logically and follows the plainest analogies he can never go
far astray. The relation of mind to brain, of thought to consciousness, of life
to matter, and of man to Nature and to Deity, is there clearly defined; not,
indeed, in all its details, but in a philosophical modulus, to be worked out in
reason and in life. The all-pervading Life, the cyclic or periodical movements,
the periods of action and of repose, and the intimate relations and
inter-dependences of all things apply to Cosmos, and equally to every atom in
its vast embrace.

Students sometimes
complain that they cannot understand, that the subject is so vast, and so deep
and intricate, and not
p.35
made clear. lt is because they do not realize what they have undertaken.
Occultism can neither be taught nor learned in "a few easy lessons." The "object
lessons" sometimes given by H.P.B., almost always misunderstood and misapplied,
though often explained at the time, served as often to excite vulgar curiosity
and personal abuse as to arrest attention and study. If, before the advent of
the T.S. in the face of the creeds of Christendom, the materialism of science,
the indifferences and supercilious scorn of Agnosticism, and the babel of
spiritualism, it had been proposed to begin at the foundations and reconstruct
our entire knowledge of Nature and of man; to show the unity and the foundations
of the worlds religions; to eliminate from science all its "missing links"; to
make Agnosticism gnostic; and to place the science of psychology and the nature
and laws of mind and soul over against "Mediumship"; it would have been held as
an herculean task, and declared impossible of accomplishment. Now that the thing
has virtually been accomplished and this body of knowledge presented to the
world, people think it strange that they cannot compass it all, as the poet
Burns is said to have written some of his shorter poems, "while standing on one
leg!"

Again, people
complain at the unfamiliar terms and the strange words imported from foreign
languages. Yet if one were to undertake the study of physics, chemistry, music,
or medicine, quite as great obstacles have to be overcome. Is it a strange
thing, then, that the science that includes all these, and undertakes to give a
synthesis of the whole realm of Nature and of life, should have its own
nomenclature?

Beyond all these
necessary and natural obstacles, there is another, viz., that
contentious spirit that disputes and opposes every point before it is fairly
stated or understood. Suppose one ignorant of mathematics were to proceed in the
same manner and say, "I don't like that proposition," "I don't see
why they turn a six upside down to make a nine," "Why don't two and two
make five?", and so on, how long would it take such a one to learn mathematics?
In the study of the Secret Doctrine it is not a matter of likes or dislikes, of
belief or unbelief,
p.36
but solely a matter of intelligence and understanding. He who acknowledges his
ignorance and yet is unwilling to lay aside his likes and dislikes, and even his
creeds and dogmas, for the time, in order to see what is presented in its own
light and purely on its merits, has neither need nor use for the Secret
Doctrine. Even where a greater number of propositions are accepted or "believed"
and a few are rejected, the synthetic whole is entirely lost sight of. But, says
some one, this is a plea for blind credulity, and an attempt to bind the mind
and the conscience of man to a blind acceptance of these doctrines. No one but
the ignorant or the dishonest can make such an assertion in the face of the
facts. Listen to the following from p. xix, Introduction to the Secret
Doctrine. "It is above everything important to keep in mind that no
theosophical book acquires the least additional value from pretended authority."
If that be advocating blind credulity, let the enemies of the T.S. make the most
of it. If any authority pertains to the Secret Doctrine, it must be
sought inside, not outside. It must rest on its comprehensiveness, its
completeness, its continuity and reasonableness; in other words, on its
philosophical synthesis, a thing missed alike by the superficial and the
contentious, by the indolent, the superstitious, and the dogmatic.

O wise man: you have
asked rightly. Now listen carefully. The illusive fancies arising from error are
not conclusive.

The great and
peaceful ones live regenerating the world like the coming of spring, and after
having themselves crossed the ocean of embodied existence, help those who try to
do the same thing, without personal motives.

--Crest Jewel of
Wisdom

IV

In the foregoing
articles, necessarily brief and fragmentary, a few points have been given to
show the general bearing of the Secret Doctrine on all problems in
Nature and in Life.

Synthesis is the very
essence of philosophy--"the combination of separate elements of thought into a
whole"--the opposite of analysis, and analysis is the very essence of science.

In the "Outline of
the Secret Doctrine" by "C.J.," now running through the pages of Lucifer,
this philosophy or synthesis
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of the whole is made very clear.

There have been many
philosophisers in modern times, but there can be but one philosophy,
one synthesis of the whole of Eternal Nature. With the single exception
of the writings of Plato, no one in modern times had given to the Western world
any approximation to a complete philosophy, previous to the appearance of H. P.
Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine. The writings of Plato are carefully veiled
in the symbolical language of initiation. The Secret Doctrine, coming
more than two millenniums later, and in an age of so-called Science, is
addressed to the Scientific thought of the age, and hence considers the whole
subject largely from the stand-point of Science. The present age is as deficient
in philosophy as was the age of Plato in knowledge of science. It follows,
therefore, that while the Secret Doctrine itself apprehends equally both
philosophy and science, in addressing itself to the thought of an age it must
recognize here, as it does everywhere, the law of cycles that rules in
the intellectual development of a race no less than in the revolutions of suns
and worlds, and so address the times from that plane of thought that is in the
ascendant. It is just because analytical thought is in the ascendant, because it
is the thought-form of the age, that the great majority of readers are
likely to overlook the broad synthesis and so miss the philosophy of the Secret
Doctrine. The only object of these brief and fragmentary papers has been to call
attention to this point.

We are now in a
transition period, and in the approaching twentieth century there will be a
revival of genuine philosophy, and the Secret Doctrine will be the basis of the
"New Philosophy." Science today, in the persons of such advanced students as
Keely, Crookes, Lodge, Richardson, and many others, already treads so close to
the borders of occult philosophy that it will not be possible to prevent the new
age from entering the occult realm. H. P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine is
a storehouse of scientific facts, but this is not its chief value. These facts
are placed, approximately at least, in such relation to the synthesis or
philosophy of occultism as to render comparatively
p.38
easy the task of the student who is in search of real knowledge, and to further
his progress beyond all preconception, provided he is teachable, in earnest, and
intelligent. Nowhere else in English literature is the Law of Evolution given
such sweep and swing. It reminds one of the ceaseless under-tone of the deep
sea, and seems to view our Earth in all its changes "from the birth of time to
the crack of doom." It follows man in his triple evolution, physical, mental,
and spiritual, throughout the perfect circle of his boundless life. Darwinism
had reached its limits and a rebound. Man is indeed evolved from lower forms.
But which man? the physical? the psychical? the intellectual? or the
spiritual? The Secret Doctrine points where the lines of evolution and
involution meet; where matter and spirit clasp hands; and where the rising
animal stands face to face with the fallen god; for all natures meet
and mingle in man.

Judge no proposition
of the Secret Doctrine as though it stood alone, for not one stands alone. Not
"independence" here more than with the units that constitute Humanity. It is
interdependence everywhere; in nature, as in life.

Even members of the
T.S. have often wondered why H.P.B. and others well known in the Society lay so
much stress on doctrines like Karma and Reincarnation. It is not alone because
these doctrines are easily apprehended and beneficent to individuals, not only
because they furnish, as they necessarily do, a solid foundation for ethics, or
all human conduct, but because they are the very key-notes of the higher
evolution of man. Without Karma and Reincarnation evolution is but a fragment; a
process whose beginnings are unknown, and whose outcome cannot be discerned; a
glimpse of what might be; a hope of what should be. But in the light of Karma
and Reincarnation evolution becomes the logic of what must be. The
links in the chain of being are all filled in, and the circles of reason and of
life are complete. Karma gives the eternal law of action, and Reincarnation
furnishes the boundless field for its display. Thousands of persons can
understand these two principles, apply them as a basis of conduct, and weave
them into the fabric of their lives, who may not be able to grasp the
p.39
complete synthesis of that endless evolution of which these doctrines form so
important a part. In thus affording even the superficial thinker and the weak or
illogical reasoner a perfect basis for ethics and an unerring guide in life,
Theosophy is building toward the future realization of the Universal Brotherhood
and the higher evolution of man. But few in this generation realize the work
that is thus undertaken, or how much has already been accomplished. The
obscurity of the present age in regard to genuine philosophical thought is
nowhere more apparent than in the manner in which opposition has been waged
toward these doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation. In the seventeen years since
the Theosophical movement has been before the world there has not appeared, from
any source, a serious and logical attempt to discredit these doctrines from a
philosophical basis. There have been denial, ridicule, and denunciation ad
nauseum. There could be no discussion from such a basis, for from the very
beginning these doctrines have been put forth and advocated from the logical and
dispassionate plane of philosophy. Ridicule is both unanswerable and unworthy of
answer. It is not the argument, but the atmosphere of weak minds, born of
prejudice and ignorance.

The synthesis of
occultism is therefore the philosophy of Nature and of Life; the full -- or
free--truth that apprehends every scientific fact in the light of the unerring
processes of Eternal Nature.

The time must
presently come when the really advanced thinkers of the age will be compelled to
lay by their indifference, and their scorn and conceit, and follow the lines of
philosophical investigation laid down in the Secret Doctrine. Very few
seem yet to have realized how ample are these resources, because it involves a
process of thought almost unknown to the present age of empiricism and
induction. It is a revelation from archaic ages, indestructible and eternal, yet
capable of being obscured and lost; capable of being again and again reborn, or
like man himself--reincarnated.

"He who lives in one
color of the rainbow is blind to the
p.40
rest. Live in the Light diffused through the entire arc, and you will know it
all."--The Path.

"He who knows not the
common things of life is a beast among men. He who knows only the common things
of life is a man among beasts. He who knows all that can be learned by diligent
inquiry is a god among men."--Plato.

Path,
November, 1891,February, March, May, 1892

UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD A FACT IN NATURENOTE--Address given by Wm.Q. Judge at the Parliament of Religions, Chicago,
1893.

I HAVE
been requested to speak on the subject of Universal Brotherhood as a fact in
nature; not as a theory, not as a Utopian dream which can never be realized; not
as a fact in society, not as a fact in government, but as a fact in nature. That
is, that Universal Brotherhood is an actual thing, whether it is recognized or
whether it is not. Christian priests have claimed for some years, without right,
that Christianity introduced the idea of Universal Brotherhood. The reason the
claim was made, I suppose, was because those who made it did not know that other
religions at other times had the same doctrine. It is found in the Buddhist
scriptures, it is found in the Chinese books, it is found in the Parsee books,
it is found everywhere in the history of the world, long before the first year
of the Christian Era began. So it is not a special idea from the Christian
Scriptures. Every nation, then, every civilization has brought forward this
doctrine, and the facts of history show us that, more than at any other time,
the last eighteen hundred years have seen this doctrine violated in society, in
government, and in nations. So that at last men have come to say, "Universal
Brotherhood is very beautiful; it is something that we all desire, but it is
impossible to realize." With one word they declare the noble doctrine, and with
the other they deny the possibility of its ever being realized.

Why is this the case?
Why is it that although Christianity and other religions have brought forward
this doctrine, it has been violated? We cannot deny that it has been. The
history of even the last few years proves it. The history of the last forty
years in America, without going any farther back, proves that this doctrine has
been violated in the West. How could it have been a doctrine that the Americans
believed in when they had slavery in their midst? How could
p.42
it have been believed in by the French when they stretched out their hand and
demanded of Siam,
a weak and powerless nation, that it must give up to them its own property? How
could it have been believed in by the Germans and French when they constructed
engines of war and went into battle and destroyed each other by the thousand?
Does not the American War of the Rebellion and the vast amount of treasure
wasted and the thousands slain in that civil war prove conclusively that
Universal Brotherhood has not been practiced? It has been professed but not
practiced. Now, go further back, go back in the history of the nations in Europe,
without going to any other country, and what do you find? Do you not find
sectarian prejudice? Their view of Universal Brotherhood has for years prevented
the progress of science. Is it not true that only since science became
materialized--a most remarkable thing, but it is true--I insist that since then
only science has made progress. If Universal Brotherhood had been a belief of
this nation, then we would not have had the burning of witches in America; nor
in other countries would we have had the burning of Catholics by Protestants,
nor the burning of Protestants by Catholics; we would not have had the
persecutions that have stained the pages of history; and yet we have always
claimed that we have had Universal Brotherhood. We have had the theory but not
the practice. Now, then, has there not been something wanting? It is a beautiful
doctrine. It is the only doctrine of the Theosophical Society, the only thing
that any man is asked by us to subscribe to. What, then, is the matter with it?
Why so many men who say that it is beautiful, but it is impossible, simply
impossible? There are even some branches of the Christian church which say,
"There is Jesus; why, the altruistic, noble teachings of Christ are beautiful;
but no State could live three months under such doctrine." The reason that it
has not prevailed in practice is that it has been denied in the heart.

The Theosophist who
knows anything about life insists that Universal Brotherhood is not a mere
theory. It is a fact,
p.43
a living ever present fact, from which no nation can hope to escape; no man can
escape from it, and every man who violates it violates a law, violates the
greatest law of nature, which will react upon him and make him suffer. And that
is why we have had suffering; that is why you have in Chicago, in London, in New
York, in Berlin, in all the great cities of the world, masses of people who are
claiming with violence what they call their rights and saying they must have
them, and that another class is oppressing them; and danger lurks in every
corner because men are insisting on Universal Brotherhood. This noble doctrine
has already become a danger. The reason of all these things is that men have
denied the fact. Now, we propose to show you, if we can, that it is a fact.

If you will notice
you will find that when it rains over a certain area vast numbers of men are
affected similarly. The rain has to fall on the fields in order that the harvest
may grow, so that afterwards it may be gathered, and all the farmers are
affected together by the rain. If you examine society you will find that at the
same hour every day almost all the people are doing exactly the same thing. At a
certain hour in the morning thousands of your citizens are going down that
railway or rush all together to catch the train and at another few moments
afterward they are rushing out of the train to get to business, all doing the
same thing, one common thought inspiring them. That is one of the proofs--a
small one--in social and business life that they are affected together, they are
all united. Then in the evening they will come home at the same hour, and if you
could see, at the same hour you would see them all eating together and digesting
together, and then later on they are all lying down together at the same hour.
Are they not united even in their social life? Brothers even in that? And what
do we see here in business? Lately I have felt it; every man has felt it, and
many women; doubtless all have felt it; lately we have had a financial crisis,
perhaps have it yet, in which dollars have been scarce, during which men have
discovered that there
p.44
are only just so many dollars and half dollars to each person in the country,
and we have altogether been suffering from that panic all over this vast
country. Suffering, why? Because commercially we are united and cannot get out
of it. China even is affected by it, and Japan. India, they say, was the cause
of it. Some men say the reason for this panic is that India put the price of
rupees down, and we who produce so much silver began to feel it. I do not know
that is the reason. But I think there is another cause. I think the American
nation is so fond of luxury, so fond of fine clothes, so fond of having a heap
of money, that it has gone too far and there was bound to come a reaction,
because it is all united together with the whole world, and when it spread
itself out too far the slightest touch broke the fabric. That is the reason, and
that is another proof of Universal Brotherhood. We are all united, not only with
each other here, but with the entire world.

Now, then, go further
still materially and you find that all men are alike. We have the same sort of
bodies, a little different perhaps in height, weight, and extension, but as
human beings we are all alike, all the same color in one country, all the same
shape in any country, so that as mere bodies of flesh they are united, they are
the same. We know every man and woman has exuding from him or her what is called
perspiration. The doctors will tell you there is a finer perspiration you cannot
see, the invisible perspiration which goes out a short distance around about us;
we know it comes out from every person, and the emanations of each person are
affecting every other person, being interchanged always. All those in this room
are being affected by these emanations and also by the ideas of each other, and
the ideas of the speakers speaking to you. So it is in every direction; wherever
you go, wherever you look, we are united; in whatever plane, the plane of mind
as well as the plane of the body; the plane of the emotions, of the spirit, what
not, we are all united, and it is a fact from which we cannot escape. Now, then,
further: science is beginning to admit what the old
p.45
Theosophists have always said, that there is going on every minute in every
person a death, a dissolution, a disappearance. It used to be taught and thought
in the West that we could see matter, that this table is made of matter. It is
admitted today by your best scientific men in every part of Western civilization
that you do not see matter at all; it is only the phenomena of matter we see;
and it is my senses which enable me to perceive these phenomena. It is not
matter at all, and so we do not see matter. Now admitting that, they go further
and say there is a constant change in matter so-called; that is, this table is
in motion. This is not a purely Theosophical theory. Go to any doctor of Physics
and he will admit to you as I have stated it. This table is in motion; every
molecule is separate from every other, and there is space between them, and they
are moving. So it is with every man; he is made of atoms and they are in motion.
Then how is it we remain the same size and weight nearly always from the moment
of maturity until death? We eat tons of meat and vegetables but remain the same.
It is not because of the things you have eaten. In addition to that the atoms
are alive, constantly moving, coming and going from one person to another; and
this is the modern doctrine today as well as it was the doctrine of ancient
India. They call it the momentary dissolution of atoms; that is to say, to put
it in another way, I am losing, all of you in this room are losing, a certain
number of atoms, but they are being replaced by other atoms. Now, where do these
other atoms come from? Do they not come from the people in this room? These
atoms help to rebuild your body as well as does the food you eat. And we are
exuding atoms from our minds, and we are receiving into ourselves the atoms
other men have used. For, remember, science teaches you, and Theosophy has
always insisted, that matter is invisible before it is turned into this
combination of the life cycle, which makes it visible, makes it tangible to us.
So these atoms leave us in a stream and rush into other people. And therefore
the atoms of good men go into bad men, the atoms impressed by bad men go into
good
p.46
men, and vice versa. In that way as well as others we are affecting
everybody in this world; and the people in Chicago who are living mean, selfish
lives are impressing these invisible atoms with mean and selfish characters, and
these mean and selfish atoms will be distributed by other men, and by you again
to your and their detriment. That is another phase of Universal Brotherhood. It
teaches us to be careful to see that we use and keep the atoms in our charge in
such a condition that they shall benefit others to whom they shall go.

There is another view
of Universal Brotherhood, and I don't pretend to exhaust the argument on this
point, for I have not the time nor force to state all that is put forward in the
Theosophical books and literature and thought. That is, that there is in this
world an actual Universal Brotherhood of men and women, of souls, a brotherhood
of beings who practice Universal Brotherhood by always trying to influence the
souls of men for their good. I bring to you the message of these men; I bring to
you the words of that brotherhood. Why will you longer call yourselves miserable
men and women who are willing to go to a Heaven where you will do nothing? Do
you not like to be gods? Do you not want to be gods? I hear some men say, "What,
a god! Impossible!" Perhaps they do not like the responsibility. Why, when you
get to that position you will understand the responsibility. This actual
Brotherhood of living men says, Why, men of the West, why will you so long
refuse to believe you are gods? We are your brothers and we are gods with you.
Be then as gods! Believe that you are gods, and then, after experience and
attainment, you will have a place consciously in the great Brotherhood which
governs the entire world, but cannot go against the law. This great Brotherhood
of living men, living souls, would, if they could, alter the face of
civilization; they would, if they could, come down and make saints of every one
of you; but evolution is the law and they cannot violate it; they must wait for
you. And why will you so long be satisfied to believe that you are born in
original sin and cannot escape? I do not believe in any such doctrine as that. I
do not believe I was
p.47
born in original sin. I believe that I am pretty bad, but that potentially I am
a god, and I propose to take the inheritance if it is possible. For what
purpose? So that I may help all the rest to do the same thing, for that is the
law of Universal Brotherhood; and the Theosophical Society wishes to enforce it
on the West, to make it see this great truth, that we are as gods, and are only
prevented from being so in fact by our own insanity, ignorance, and fear to take
the position.

So, then, we insist
that Universal Brotherhood is a fact in nature. It is a fact for the lowest part
of nature; for the animal kingdom, for the vegetable kingdom, and the mineral
kingdom. We are all atoms, obeying the law together. Our denying it does not
disprove it. It simply puts off the day of reward and keeps us miserable, poor,
and selfish. Why, just think of it! If all in Chicago, in the United States,
would act as Jesus has said, as Buddha has said, as Confucius said, as all the
great ethical teachers of the world have said, "Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you," would there be any necessity for legal measures and policemen
with clubs in this park as you had them the other day? No, I think there would
be no necessity, and that is what one of this great Brotherhood has said. He
said all the troubles of the world would disappear in a moment if men would only
do one-quarter of what they could and what they ought. It is not God who is to
damn you to death, to misery. It is yourself. And the Theosophical Society
desires above all things, not that you should understand spiritualism, not that
wonderful occult works should be performed, but to understand the constitution
of matter and of Life as they are, which we can never understand but by
practicing right ethics. Live with each other as brothers; for the misery and
the trouble of the world are of more importance than all the scientific progress
that may be imagined. I conclude by calling upon you by all that humanity holds
dear to remember what I say, and whether Christians, Atheists, Jews, Pagans,
Heathen, or Theosophists, try to practice Universal Brotherhood, which is the
universal duty of all men.

THEOSOPHICAL DOCTRINE

NOTE--Address
given by Mr. Judge at the Parliament of Religions, 1893. (Title added.)

MR. CHAIRMAN;
brothers and sisters; men and women; members of the Parliament of Religions: The
Theosophical Society has been presenting to you but one-half of its work, but
one-half of that which it has to present to the world. This is the Parliament of
Religions. This is a Parliament of the Religions of the day. Theosophy is not
only a religion; it is also a science; it is religious science and scientific
religion, and at a Parliament of Religions it would not be possible, indeed it
would not be proper, to present the science of Theosophy, which relates to so
many matters outside of the ordinary domain of the religions of today. The time
will come when religion will also be a science. Today it is not. The object of
Theosophy is to make of religion also a science, and to make science a religion,
so we have been presenting only one-half of the subject which we deal with, and
I would like you to remember that. We could not go into the other part; it would
be beyond the scope of this meeting.

Now, we have
discovered during the last week, as many have discovered before by reading, by
experience, and by travel, that the religions of the world are nearly all alike.
We have discovered that Christianity is not alone in claiming a Savior. If you
will go over to Japan you will find that the Buddhists of Japan have a doctrine
which declares that any one who relies upon and repeats three times a day the
name "Amita Buddha," will be saved. That is one Savior of the Buddhists, who had
the doctrine before Christianity was started. If you will go among the Buddhists
elsewhere you
p.49
will find that they also have a Savior; that by reliance upon the Lord Buddha,
they claim they will be saved. If you will go to the Brahmins and the other
religions of India, you will find they also have a Savior. In some parts of that
mysterious land they say: "Repeat the name of Rama"--God--"and he will save
you." The Brahmins themselves have in their doctrines a doctrine which is called
the "Bridge Doctrine": that which has God for its aim, has God himself as the
means of salvation; is itself God. And so wherever you go throughout this wide
world, examining the various religions, you find they all have this common
doctrine. Why should we then say that the latest of these religions is the
inventor of the doctrine? It is not. It is common property of the whole human
race, and we find on further inquiry that these religions all teach, and the
Christian religion also, that this Savior is within the heart of every man, and
is not outside of him.

We have discovered
further by examining all these religions and comparing them with the Christian
religion, which is the one belonging to the foremost nation of today, that in
these other religions and in Christianity are found certain doctrines which
constitute the key that will unlock this vast lock made up of the different
religions. These doctrines are not absent from Christianity any more than they
are absent from Buddhism or from Brahminism, and now the time has come when the
world must know that these doctrines are common property, when it is too late
for any people West or East to claim that they have a special property in any
doctrine whatever.

The two principles
which unlock this great lock which bars men sometimes from getting on, are
called Karma and Reincarnation. The latter doctrine bears a more difficult
Sanscrit name.

The doctrine of Karma
put into our language is simply and solely Justice. What is justice? Is it
something that condemns alone? I say, No. Justice is also mercy. For mercy may
not be dissociated from justice, and the word justice itself includes mercy
within it. Not the justice of man, which is false and erring, but the justice of
Nature. That is also mercy.
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For if she punishes you, it is in order that she may do a merciful act and show
you the truth at last by discipline. That is the doctrine of Karma, and it is
also called the ethical law of causation. It means that effect follows cause
uniformly; not alone in mere objective nature, where if you put your hand in the
fire it will surely be burned, but in your moral nature, throughout your whole
spiritual and intellectual evolution. It has been too much the custom to
withdraw from use this law of cause and effect the moment we look at man as a
spiritual being; and the religions and philosophies of the past and the present
have the proof within them that this law of cause and effect obtains on the
spiritual, the moral, and the intellectual planes just as much as it does on the
physical and objective. It is our object to once more bring back this law of
justice to the minds of men and show them that justice belongs to God, and that
he is not a God who favors people, but who is just because he is merciful.

The doctrine of reincarnation is the next one. Reincarnation, you say, what is
that? Do you mean that I was here before? Yes, undoubtedly so. Do you mean to
tell me that this is a Christian, a Buddhist, a Brahminical, a Japanese
doctrine, and a Chinese one? Yes, and I can prove it; and if you will examine
your own records with an unprejudiced and fearless mind, afraid of no man, you
will prove it also. If you go back in the records of Christianity to the first
year of it, you will find that for many centuries this doctrine was taught.
Surely the men who lived near Jesus knew what the doctrine was. It was admitted
by Jesus himself. He said on one occasion that Elias had already come back in
the person of John, but had been destroyed by the ruler. How could Elias come
back and be born again as John unless the law of nature permitted it? We find on
examining the writers, the early Christian fathers who made the theology of the
Christian churches admitting, by the greatest of them, Origen, that this
doctrine was true. He, the greatest of them all, who wrote so much men could not
read all his books, believed in it. It is said in the Christian scripture that
Jesus also said so much they
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could not record it, and if they had, the volumes could not be counted. If these
teachings were not recorded, we can imagine from what he spoke and from what his
early followers believed, that this doctrine was taught distinctly by him in
words.

It is the doctrine of
which the Reverend Mr. Beecher, brother of the famous Henry Ward Beecher, in a
book called The Conflict of Religions, said, "It is an absolute
necessity to Christianity; without it Christianity is illogical. With it it is
logical." And a great writer, the Rev. William Alger, whose book, A Critical
History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, is used in the religious
educational institutions of all denominations with perhaps one exception, has
written twice in two editions and said that after fifteen years study of the
subject he had come to the conclusion that the doctrine was true and necessary.

Furthermore, we find
that in these countries where Christianity arose--for Christianity is not a
Western product-- reincarnation has always been believed. You ask for human
evidence. You believe in this city, not only in this city but everywhere, in a
court of law, if many witnesses testify to a fact it is proven. Well, millions
upon millions of men in the East testify that they not only believe in
reincarnation, but that they know it is true, that they remember that they were
born before and that they were here before, and hundreds and thousands of men in
the West have said the same thing. That they not only believe it, but that they
know it. Poets have written of it all through English literature. It is a
doctrine that almost everybody believes in their hearts. The little child coming
straight from the other shore, coming without any defects straight from the
heavenly Father, believes that it has always lived.

If the doctrine of
immortality which is taught by every religion is true, how can you split it in
halves and say, you began to be immortal when you were born and you were never
immortal before? How is it possible you did not live before if there is any
justice in this universe? Is it not true
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that what happens is the result of your conduct? If you live a life of sin and
wickedness, will you not suffer? If you steal, and rob, and lie, and put in
operation causes for punishment, will you not be punished? Why should not that
law be applied to the human being when born, to explain his state and capacity?
We find children are born blind, deformed, halt, without capacity; where is the
prior conduct which justifies such a thing, if they have just been born for the
first time? They must have lived before. The disciples asked Jesus, "Why was
this man born blind; was it for some sin he had committed?" When committed? When
did he commit it if he had never been born before? Why ask Jesus, their master,
this question, unless they believed the doctrine, unless, as we think, it is the
true one and one then prevalent?

This doctrine of
reincarnation, then, we claim is the lost chord of any religion that does not
promulgate it. We say it is found in the Christian religion; it is found in
every religion, and it offers to us a means whereby our evolution may be carried
on, it offers an explanation to the question, Why are men born with different
characters? We find one man born generous, and he will always be generous; we
find another born selfish, and selfish he will be to the end of his life. We
find one man born with great capacity, a great mind that can cover many subjects
at once; or a special mind and capacity like that of Mozart. Why was he born so?
Where did he get it if not from the character he had in the past? You may say
that heredity explains it all. Then please explain how Blind Tom, born of negro
parents who never knew anything about a piano, who never knew anything about
music, was able to play upon a mechanically scaled instrument like the piano? It
is not a natural thing. Where did he get the capacity? Heredity does not explain
that. We explain it by reincarnation. Just so with Mozart, who at four years of
age was able to write an orchestral score. Do you know what that means? It means
the writing down the parts for the many instruments, and not only that, but
writing it in a forced scale, which is a mechanical thing. How will that be
explained
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by heredity? If you say that among his ancestors there must have been musicians,
then why not before or after him? See Bach! If Bach could look back from the
grave he would have seen his musical genius fading and fading out of his family
until at last it disappeared.

Heredity will not
explain these great differences in character and genius, but reincarnation will.
It is the means of evolution of the human soul; it is the means of evolution for
every animate and inanimate thing in this world. It applies to everything. All
nature is constantly being reëmbodied, which is reincarnation. Go back with
science. It shows you that this world was first a mass of fiery vapor; come down
the years and you see this mass reëmbodied in a more solid form; later still it
is reëmbodied as the mineral kingdom, a great ball in the sky, without life;
later still animal life begins evolving until now it has all that we know of
life, which is a reëmbodiment over and over again, or reincarnation. It means,
then, that just as you move periodically from house to house in the city, you
are limited by every house you move into, so the human being, who never dies, is
not subject to death, moves periodically from house to house, and takes up a
mortal body life after life, and is simply limited a little more or a little
less, just as the case may be, by the particular body he may inhabit.

I could not go
through all this subject to answer all the objections, but Theosophy will answer
them all. The differences in people are explained by the fact that the character
of the individual attracts him to the family that is just like himself, and not
to any other family, and through heredity he receives his discipline,
punishment, and reward.

The objections to
reincarnation are generally based upon the question, why we do not remember. In
the West that objection arises from the fact that we have been materialists so
long, we have been deceived so long, that we have forgotten; we are not able to
remember anything but what makes a violent impression on our senses. In the East
and in some places in the West the people remember, and the time will come when
the people in the West will remember also. And
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I warrant you that the children of the West know this, but it is rubbed out of
their minds by their fathers and mothers. They say to the child, "Don't bother
me with such questions; you are only imagining things." As if a child could
imagine that it had been here before if it had not been. They never could
imagine a thing which has not some existence in fact or that is not built up
from impressions received. As you watch the newborn child you will see it throw
its arms out to support itself. Why should the child throw out its arms to
support itself? You say, instinct. What is instinct? Instinct is recollection
imprinted upon the soul, imprinted upon the character within a child just born,
and it knows enough to remember that it must throw out its arms to save itself
from being hurt. Any physician will tell you this fact is true. Whether they
explain it in the same way as I do or not, I don't know. We cannot remember our
past lives simply because the brain which we now have was not concerned with
these past lives. You say you cannot remember a past life, and therefore you
don't believe it is true. Well if we grant that kind of argument, apply it to
the fact that you cannot remember the facts of your present existence here; you
cannot remember what dinner you ate three weeks ago; you cannot remember
one-quarter of what has happened to you. Do you mean to say that all these
things did not happen because you cannot remember? You cannot remember what
happens to you now, so how do you expect to remember what happened to you in
another life? But the time will come when man not so immersed in materiality
will form his soul to such an extent that its qualities will be impressed upon
the newborn child body and he will be able to remember and to know all his past,
and then he will see himself an evolving being who has come up through all the
ages as one of the creators of the world, as one of those who have aided in
building this world. Man, we say, is the top, the crown of evolution; not merely
as one who has been out there through favor, but as one who worked himself up
through nature, unconsciously sometimes to himself, but under law, the very top
and key of the whole system, and the time
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will come when he will remember it.

Now, this being the
system of evolution which we gather from all religions, we say it is necessary
to show that cause and effect act on man's whole being. We say that this law of
cause and effect, or Karma, explains every circumstance in life and will show
the poor men in Chicago who are born without means to live, who sometimes are
hunted by the upper class and live in misery, why they are born so. It will
explain why a man is born rich, with opportunity which he neglects; and another
man born rich, with opportunity which he does not neglect. It will explain how
Carnegie, the great iron founder in America, was a poor telegraph boy before he
was raised to be a great millionaire. It will explain how one is born with small
brain power, and another born with great brain power. It is because we have
never died; we have always been living, in this world or in some other, and we
are always making causes and character for the next life as well as for this.

Do you not know that
your real life is in your mind, in your thoughts? Do you not know a great deal
is due to your own mind, and under every act is a thought, and the thoughts make
the man, and those thoughts act upon the forces of nature? Inasmuch as all these
beings come back and live together over and over again, they bring back the
thoughts, the impressions of those they have met and which others have made upon
them there. When you persecute and hurt a man now, you are not punished
afterwards because of the act you did to him, but because of the thought under
your act and the thought under his feelings when he received your act. Having
made these thoughts, they remain forever with you and him, and when you come
again you will receive back to yourselves that which you gave to another. And is
not that Christianity as well as Brahminism and Buddhism? You say, No. I say,
Yes; read it in the words of Jesus, and I would have you to show that you are
right if you say, No. St. Paul I suppose is authority for you, and St. Paul says
"Brethren, be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap." I ask you where and when shall he
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reap that which he has sown? He must reap it where he sowed it, or there is no
justice. He must come back here and help to cure that evil which he caused; he
must come back here if he did cause any evil and continue to do all the good he
can, so he may help to evolve the whole human race, which is waiting for him
also. Jesus said; "Judge not, that ye be not judged; for with what measure ye
mete, so shall it be measured out to you again." When? If you go to heaven after
this life and escape all you have done, certainly not then, and you make Jesus
to have said that which is not true, and make St. Paul say that which is not
true.

But I believe that
St. Paul and Jesus knew what they were talking about and meant what they said.
So, then, we must come again here in order that God shall not be mocked and each
man shall reap that which he has sowed.

It is just the
absence of this explanation that has made men deny religion; for they have said:
"Why, these men did not get what they sowed. Here are rich, wicked men who die
in their beds, happy, with a shrive at the end of it. They have not reaped." But
we know, just as Jesus and St. Paul have said, they will reap it surely, and we
say according to philosophy, according to logic, according to justice, they will
reap it right here where they sowed it, and not somewhere else. It would be
unjust to send them anywhere else to reap it but where they did it. That has
been taught in every religion ever since the world began, and it is the mission
of the Theosophical Society to bring back the key to all the creeds, to show
that they are really at the bottom in these essential doctrines alike, and that
men have a soul in a body, a soul that is ever living, immortal and can never
die, cannot be withered up, cannot be cut in two, cannot be destroyed, is never
annihilated, but lives forever and forever, climbing forever and forever up the
ladder of evolution, nearer and nearer, yet never reaching the full stature of
the Godhead. That is what Theosophy wishes men to believe; not to believe that
any particular creed is true. Jesus had no creed and formulated none. He
declared the law to be, "Do unto others what you would have them do unto
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you." That was the law and the prophets. That is enough for any one. Love your
neighbor as yourself. No more. Why, then, any creeds whatever? His words are
enough, and his words and our ethical basis are the same. That is why we have no
form of religion. We are not advocating religion; we are simply pointing out to
men that the truth is there to pick up and prize it. Religion relates to the
conduct of men; nature will take care of the results; nature will see what they
will come to; but if we follow these teachings which we find everywhere, and the
spirit of the philosophy which we find in all these old books, then men will
know why they must do right, not because of the law, not because of fear, not
because of favor, but because they must do right for rights own sake.

CYCLES AND CYCLIC LAW

NOTE.--Final address by W.Q.J. at
Parliament of Religions, 1893. Other talks by Mr. Judge on "The Organized Life
of the T.S." and "Theosophy in the Christian Bible" were printed in Pamphlets
No. 3 and No. 15.

LADIES and gentlemen:
This is our last meeting; it is the last impulse of the Cycle which we began
when we opened our sessions at this Parliament. All the other bodies which have
met in this building have been also starting cycles just as we have been. Now, a
great many people know what the word "cycle" means, and a great many do not.
There are no doubt in Chicago
many men who think that a cycle is a machine to be ridden; but the word that I
am dealing with is not that. I am dealing with a word which means a return, a
ring. It is a very old term, used in the far past. In our civilization it is
applied to a doctrine which is not very well understood, but which is accepted
by a great many scientific men, a great many religious men, and by a great many
thinking men. The theory is, as held by the ancient Egyptians, that there is a
cycle, a law of cycles which governs humanity, governs the earth, governs all
that is in the universe. You may have heard Brother Chakravarti say the Hindus
are still teaching that there is a great cycle which begins when the Unknown
breathes forth the whole universe, and ends when it is turned in again into
itself. That is the great cycle.

In the Egyptian
monuments, papyri, and other records the cycles are spoken of. They held, and
the ancient Chinese also held, that a great cycle governs the earth, called the
sidereal cycle because it related to the stars. The work was so large that it
had to be measured by the stars, and that cycle is
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25,800 and odd years long. They claim to have measured this enormous cycle. The
Egyptians gave evidence they had measured it also and had measured many others,
so that in these ancient records, looking at the question of cycles, we have a
hint that man has been living on the earth, has been civilized and uncivilized
for more years than we have been taught to believe. The ancient Theosophists
have always held that civilization with humanity went around the earth in
cycles, in rings, returning again and again upon itself, but that at each turn
of the cycle, on the point of return it was higher than before. This law of
cycles is held in Theosophical doctrine to be the most important of all, because
it is at the bottom of all. It is a part of the law of that unknown being who is
the universe, that there shall be a periodical coming from and a periodical
returning again upon itself.

Now, that the law of
cycles does prevail in the world must be very evident if you will reflect for a
few moments. The first cycle I would draw your attention to is the daily cycle,
when the sun rises in the morning and sets at night, returning again next
morning, you following the sun, rising in the morning and at night going to
sleep again, at night almost appearing dead, but the next morning awaking to
life once more. That is the first cycle. You can see at once that there are
therefore in a mans life just as many cycles of that kind as there are days in
his life. The next is the monthly cycle, when the moon, changing every 28 days,
marks the month. We have months running to more days, but that is only for
convenience, to avoid change in the year. The moon gives the month and marks the
monthly cycle.

The next is the
yearly cycle. The great luminary, the great mover of all, returns again to a
point from whence he started. The next great cycle to which I would draw your
attention, now we have come to the sun--it is held by science and is provable I
think by other arguments the next cycle is that the sun, while stationary to us,
is in fact moving through space in an enormous orbit which we can not measure.
As he moves he draws the earth and the planets as they wheel about him.
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We may say, then, this is another great cycle. It appears reasonable that, as
the sun is moving through that great cycle, he must draw the earth into spaces
and places and points in space where the earth has never been before, and that
it must happen that the earth shall come now and then into some place where the
conditions are different and that it may be changed in a moment, as it were, for
to the eye of the soul a thousand years are but a moment, when everything will
be different. That is one aspect of cyclic doctrine, that the sun is drawing the
earth in a great orbit of his own and is causing the earth to be changed in its
nature by reason of the new atomic spaces into which it is taken.

We also hold that the
earth is governed by cyclic law throughout the century as in a moment. The
beings upon it are never in the same state. So nations, races, civilizations,
communities are all governed in the same way and moved by the same law. This law
of cycles is the law of reincarnation that we were speaking of today: that is,
that a man comes into the world and lives a day, his life is as a day; he dies
out of it and goes to sleep, elsewhere waking; then he sleeps there to wake
again the next great day; after a period of rest, he again enters life; that is
his cycle. We hold in Theosophical philosophy it has been proven by the Adepts
by experiment that men in general awake from this period of rest after 1,500
years. So we point in history to an historical cycle of 1,500 years, after which
old ideas return. And if you will go back in the history of the world you will
find civilization repeating itself every 1,500 years, more or less like what it
was before. That is to say, go back 1,500 years from now and you will find
coming out here now the Theosophists, the philosophers, the various thinkers,
the inventors of 1,500 years ago. And going further back still, we hold that
those ancient Egyptians who made such enormous pyramids and who had a
civilization we cannot understand, at that dim period when they burst on the
horizon of humanity to fall again, have had their cycle of rest and are
reincarnating again even in America. So we think, some of us, that the American
people of the new generation
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are a reincarnation of the ancient Egyptians, who are coming back and bringing
forth in this civilization all the wonderful ideas which the Egyptians held. And
that is one reason why this country is destined to be a great one, because the
ancients are coming back, they are here, and you are very foolish if you refuse
to consider yourselves so great. We are willing you should consider yourselves
so great, and not think you are born mean, miserable creatures.

The next cycle I
would draw your attention to is that of civilizations. We know that
civilizations have been here, and they are gone. There is no bridge between many
of these. If heredity, as some people claim, explains everything, how is it not
explained why the Egyptians left no string to connect them with the present?
There is nothing left of them but the Copts, who are poor miserable slaves. The
Egyptians, as a material race, are wiped out, and it is so because it is
according to the law of cycles and according to the law of nature that the
physical embodiment of the Egyptians had to be wiped out. But their souls could
not go out of existence, and so we find their civilization and other
civilizations disappearing, civilizations such as the ancient civilization of
Babylon, and all those old civilizations in that part of the East which were
just as strange and wonderful as any other. And this civilization of ours has
come up instead of going down, but it is simply repeating the experience of the
past on a higher level. It is better in potentiality than that which has been
before. Under the cyclic law it will rise higher and higher, and when its time
comes it will die out like the rest.

Also religions have
had their cycles. The Christian religion has had its cycle. It began in the
first year of the Christian era and was a very different thing then from what it
is now. If you examine the records of Christianity itself you will see that the
early fathers and teachers taught differently in the beginning from that which
the priests of today are teaching now. Similarly you will find that Brahminism
has had its cycle. Every religion rises and falls with the progress of human
thought, because cyclic law governs every man, and thus every religion
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which man has.

So it is also with
diseases. Is it not true that fevers are governed by a law of recurrence in
time; some have three days, some four days, nine days, fifteen days, three years
and so on? No physician can say why it is so; they only know that it is a fact.
So in every direction the law of cycles is found to govern. It is all according
to the great inherent law of the periodical ebb and flow, the Great Day and
Night of Nature. The tides in Ocean rise and fall; similarly in the great Ocean
of Nature there is a constant ebb and flow, a mightier tide which carries all
with it. The only thing that remains unshaken, immovable, never turning is the
Spirit itself. That, as St. James said--and he doubtless was himself a wise
Theosophist--is without variableness and hath no shadow of turning.

Now, this great law
of periodical return pertains also to every individual man in his daily life and
thought. Every idea that you have, every thought, affects your brain and mind by
its impression. That begins the cycle. It may seem to leave your mind,
apparently it goes out, but it returns again under the same cyclic law in some
form either better or worse, and wakes up once more the old impression. Even the
very feelings that you have of sorrow or gladness will return in time, more or
less according to your disposition, but inevitably in their cycle. This is a law
it would do good for every one to remember, especially those who have variations
of joy and sorrow, of exaltation and depression. If when depressed you would
recollect the law and act upon it by voluntarily creating another cycle of
exaltation, on its returning again with the companion cycle of lower feeling it
would in no long time destroy the depressing cycle and raise you to higher
places of happiness and peace. It applies again in matters of study where we use
the intellectual organs only. When a person begins the study of a difficult
subject or one more grave than usual, there is a difficulty in keeping the mind
upon it; the mind wanders; it is disturbed by other and older ideas and
impressions. But by persistency a new cycle is established, which, being kept
rolling, at last obtains the mastery.
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We hold further--and I can only go over this briefly-- that in evolution itself,
considered as a vast inclusive whole, there are cycles, and that unless there
were these turnings and returnings no evolution would be possible, for evolution
is but another word for cyclic law. Reincarnation, or re-embodiment over and
over again, is an expression of this great law and a necessary part of
evolution.

Evolution means a
coming forth from something. From out of what does the evolving universe come?
It comes out from what we call the unknown, and we call it "unknown" simply
because we do not know what it is. The unknown does not mean the non-existent;
it simply means that which we do not perceive in its essence or fullness. It goes
forth again and again, always higher and better; but while it is rolling around
at its lower arc it seems to those down there that it is lower than ever; but it
is bound to come up again. And that is the answer we give to those who ask, What
of all those civilizations that have disappeared, what of all the years that I
have forgotten? What have I been in other lives, I have forgotten them? We
simply say, you are going through your cycle. Some day all these years and
experiences will return to your recollection as so much gained. And all the
nations of the earth should know this law, remember it and act upon it, knowing
that they will come back and that others also will come back. Thus they should
leave behind something that will raise the cycle higher and higher, thus they
should ever work toward the perfection which mankind as a whole is striving in
fact to procure for itself.

THEOSOPHY - ITS CLAIMS, DOCTRINES, AND PROGRESS

WHEN
the Theosophical Society was started by the erstwhile famous Madam Blavatsky, in
1875, the now famous orator, Mrs. Annie Besant, was beginning to deny that there
was any life beyond this one, and was entering on that part of her career in
which she has made herself a much-talked-of woman in all parts of the civilized
world. None of the theosophists had the slightest idea then that such an able
champion for their cause was actually training herself for its service, nor did
she think then of what the present years would tell of her. For the third time,
now, Mrs. Besant has come to the United States to lecture on the doctrines of
this new-old faith. In England large audiences always greet her, and the London
papers cite the last large meeting she had there in St. James Hall as proof that
her hold on the public is not weakened. Her eloquence is, in fact, described as
being quite as powerful as in the past, and some writers think it has increased
in effect. On this trip she will go to the Pacific coast, speaking in all its
principal cities, and also in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and
others on the way out and back.

Her visit will greatly encourage the theosophists, who are now a
body of people extending from this coast to the Pacific. The objects of the
society are: First--To form a nucleus of a universal brotherhood of humanity,
without distinction of race, creed, or color. Second To promote the study of
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Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions, and sciences, and demonstrate
the importance of that study. Third--To investigate unexplained laws of nature
and the psychical powers latent in man.

The general headquarters of the body is at a suburb of Madras,
in India, built on the bank of a pretty little river, and near to the sea. Here,
any day, you can meet all sorts of men of all nations--gold-colored Brahmins
from south and north, black Hindoos and white Europeans, Mohammedans and
Christians, and now and then some picturesque Indian mendicant making a pious
pilgrimage.

In New York the local branch has purchased a large house at 144
Madison Avenue, where it has not only the general office of the American
secretary, but also three good libraries and a book-selling department. Many
well-known names are on their list of members. There is Professor James, of
Harvard, who joined in Boston; Thomas A. Edison, too, is one of the old members
but not now an active one. Dr. J. H. Salisbury, of Fifty-ninth Street, who
introduced a special form of treatment of diseases, is a member; Miss Katherine
Hillard, the lecturer on poetry, is another; and then one can find merchants,
doctors, lawyers, and people of every profession in the membership. They have
free public lectures every Sunday, and their own meetings on Tuesdays.

In San Francisco the societies activity is marked. They sustain
there a lecturer who goes up and down the coast speaking to the public freely on
the subject. They do not seek proselytes, but content themselves with presenting
their ideas, which cover a large number of doctrines, as supports for the
principle of universal brotherhood. No antagonism to Christianity is manifested,
although dogmatists might see in what they say a current of opposition to all
dogmatic schools. One of their recent lectures was an attempt to show from the
Bible that Jesus taught the doctrine of pre-existence and re-incarnation, and it
was asserted then that many a Christian minister has believed this. But it is
not a dogma with them, as all can believe what they like so long as they
tolerate the beliefs of others. A similar
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sort of lecture in Washington, some
little time ago, brought out one of the Jesuits there in some lectures to show
the truths and errors of theosophy, in which the final conclusion was that the
present form of the movement was engineered by the devil himself. At Fort Wayne,
Indiana, the local branch has called itself after Annie Besant, and includes a
great many of the best men in the town, such as two Supreme Court judges,
leading lawyers, doctors, and bankers. Much interest was created in the subject
there by a discussion carried on in the newspapers, and also by an attack made
on the whole movement by one of the preachers of the city. But, generally, the
theosophist comes out ahead, because his opponent assumes a good deal that the
theosophist does not say, and then a fair presentation of theosophy follows.

It cannot be denied that this movement has attained importance.
Weak and derided seventeen years ago, its membership has steadily increased;
they have an excellent organization, and are well united. They say they are not
spiritualists, and when one considers the violence with which some spiritualists
assail theosophy one believes they are not. The theory they advance about an
astral body which is an exact duplicate of the physical one is very interesting,
and it is claimed that it will fully explain many facts in the psychic realm,
and much that puzzles people in dreams, visions, and the seeing of apparitions.
They say that all the work of the Psychical Society will amount to naught until
these theories are accepted.

Mrs. Besant gives her adherence to all these doctrines on the
ground that she has experimented in the field and proved all to her
satisfaction. Her explanation of her change of belief is that hitherto no such
field of inquiry had been suggested to her, but when Madam Blavatsky showed her
the possibilities, examination followed, and that resulted in belief. This
declaration of opinion by such a well-known woman had the effect of turning many
agnostics in the same direction, and the theosophists say that before very long
all the scientific world will come to accept these theories. This is a bold
claim, but they show the utmost confidence, and, it is said, point to prophecies
p.67
to the same effect. If sincerity of effort, and at times fanaticism in following
along a course in the face of violent opposition, will do anything, they may
succeed. They all give time and energy to the work for no compensation except
the joy of seeing the movement grow. Some work all day for the society and have
no remuneration, and Mrs. Besant herself not only receives no salary, but
devotes what she makes by pen and voice to the society's work. It is one of
their teachings to do all you can for the human family without hope of reward.
They may be mistaken, but they are well-meaning, sincere, and devoted, and
withal exhibit evidences, not easy to trace to their source, of being managed by
some master-hand that closes up the ranks and often turns seeming disaster into
victory.

Touching the religious side, they hold that the ethics
promulgated by Jesus are universal and ancient. But they say that at present
there is no real basis for ethics in the religion or science of the day, and
that the people profess ethics but do not practice them. Theosophy proposes to
enforce the practice of these true ethics by the doctrines of actual unity of
the human race and the constant re-birth of souls into this life; hence, as all
return here to reap the reward of their deeds, good and bad, the theosophist
asserts that belief in this doctrine will cause men to practice what is
preached.

BRYAN KINNAVAN

Frank Leslie's WeeklyDecember 15, 1892

RELIGION AND REFORM
FROM A THEOSOPHICAL VIEWPOINT

By WILLIAM Q. JUDGE, F.T.S.

TWO great shadowy shapes remain fixed in the attention of the mind of the
day, threatening to become in the twentieth century more formidable and
engrossing than ever. They are religion and reform, and in their sweep they
include every question of pressing human need; for this first arises through the
introspective experience of the race out of its aspirations toward the unknown
and the ever present desire to solve the questions whence and why? while the
second has its birth in the conditions surrounding the bodies of the questioners
of fate who struggle helplessly in the ocean of material existence.

Many men wielding small or weighty pens have wrestled with these questions,
attacking them in ways as various as the minds of those who have taken them up
for consideration, but it still remains for the theosophist to bring forward his
views and obtain a hearing. This he should always do as a matter of duty, and
not from the pride of fame or the self-assertion which would see itself
proclaimed before men. For he knows that, even if he should not speak or could
not get a hearing, the march of that evolution in which he thoroughly believes
will force these views upon humanity, even if that has to be accomplished by
suffering endured by every human unit.

The theosophist can see no possibility of reform in existing abuses, in
politics or social relations, unless the plan of reform is one which grows out
of a true religion, and he does not think that any of the prevailing religions
of the Occident are true or adequate. They do not go to the root of the evil
which causes the pain and sorrow that call for reform or alleviation. And in his
opinion theosophy--the essence or concentrated virtue of every religion alone
has power to offer and effect the cure.

None of the present attempts at reform will meet success so long as they are
devoid of the true doctrine as to man, his nature and destiny, and respecting
the universe, its origin and future course. Every one of these essays leaves man
where it
p.69
finds him, neglecting the lessons to be drawn from the cycles in their
never-ceasing revolution. While efforts are made to meliorate his mere physical
condition, the real mover, the man within, is left without a guide, and is
therefore certain to produce from no matter how good a system the same evils
which are designed to be destroyed. At every change he once more proceeds to
vitiate the effect of any new regimen by the very defects in human nature that
cannot be reached by legislation or by dogmatic creeds and impossible hells,
because they are beyond the reach of everything except the power of his own
thought. Nationalism, Socialism, Liberalism, Conservatism, Communism, and
Anarchism are each and all ineffective in the end. The beautiful dream depicted
by Nationalism cannot be made a physical fact, since it has no binding inward
sanction; Communism could not stand, because in time the Communist would react
back into the holder of individual rights and protector of property which his
human nature would demand ought not to be dissipated among others less worthy.
And the continuance of the present system, in which the amasser of wealth is
allowed to retain and dispose of what he has acquired, will, in the end, result
in the very riot and bloodshed which legislation is meant to prevent and
suppress.

Indeed, the great popular right of universal suffrage, instead of bringing
about the true reign of liberty and law, will be the very engine through which
the crash will come, unless with it the Theosophic doctrines are inculcated. We
have seen the suffrage gradually extended so as to be universal in the United
States, but the people are used by the demagogues and the suffrage is put to
waste. Meanwhile, the struggle between capital and labor grows more intense, and
in time will rage with such fury that the poor and unlearned, feeling the goad
of poverty strike deeper, will cast their votes for measures respecting property
in land or chattels, so revolutionary that capital will combine to right the
supposed invasion by sword and bullet. This is the end toward which it is all
tending, and none of the reforms so sincerely put forward will avert it for one
hour after the causes have been sufficiently fixed and
p.70
crystallized. This final
formation of the efficient causes is not yet complete, but is rapidly
approaching the point where no cure will be possible.

The cold acquirements of science give us, it is true, magnificent physical
results, but fail like creeds and reforms by legislative acts in the end. Using
her own methods and instruments, she fails to find the soul and denies its
existence; while the churches assert a soul but cannot explain it, and at the
same time shock human reason by postulating the incineration by material fire of
that which they admit is immortal. As a means of escape from this dilemma
nothing is offered save a vicarious atonement and a retreat behind a blind
acceptance of incongruities and injustice in a God who is supposed by all to be
infinitely merciful and just.

Thus, on the one hand, science has no terrors and no reformatory force for
the wicked and the selfish; on the other, the creeds, losing their hold in
consequence of the inroads of knowledge, grow less and less useful and respected
every year. The people seem to be approaching an era of wild unbelief. Just such
a state of thought prevailed before the French revolution of 1793.

Theosophy here suggests the reconciliation of science and religion by showing
that there is a common foundation for all religions and that the soul exists
with all the psychic forces proceeding therefrom. As to the universe, Theosophy
teaches a never-ending evolution and involution. Evolution begins when the Great
Breath--Herbert Spencers "Unknowable" which manifests as universal energy--goes
forth, and involution, or the disappearance of the universe, obtains when the
same breath returns to itself. This coming forth lasts millions upon millions of
years, and involution prevails for an equal length of time.As soon as the
breath goes forth, universal mind together with universal basic matter appears.
In the ancient system this mind is called Mahat, and matter
Prakriti. Mahat has the plan of evolution which it impresses upon Prakriti,
causing it to ceaselessly proceed with the evolution of forms and the perfecting
of the units composing the cosmos.
p.71
The crown of this perfection is man, and he
contains in himself the whole plan of the universe copied in miniature but
universally potential.

This brings us to ourselves, surrounded as we are by an environment that
appears to us to cause pain and sorrow, no matter where we turn. But as the
immutable laws of cause and effect brought about our own evolution, the same
laws become our saviors from the miseries of existence. The two great laws
postulated by Theosophy for the world's reform are those of Karma and
Reincarnation. Karma is the law of action which decrees that man must suffer and
enjoy solely through his own thoughts and acts. His thoughts, being the smaller
copy of the universal mind, lie at the root of every act and constitute the
force that brings about the particular body he may inhabit. So Reincarnation in
an earthly body is as necessary for him as the ceaseless reincarnation of the
universal mind in evolution after evolution is needful for it. And as no man is
a unit separate from the others in the Cosmos, he must think and act in such a
way that no discord is produced by him in the great universal stream of
evolution. It is the disturbance of this harmony which alone brings on the
miseries of life, whether that be of a single man or of the whole nation. As he
has acted in his last life or lives, so will he be acted upon in succeeding
ones. This is why the rich are often unworthy, and the worthy so frequently poor
and afflicted. All appeals to force are useless, as they only create new causes
sure to react upon us in future lives as well as in the present. But if all men
believed in this just and comprehensive law of Karma, knowing well that whatever
they do will be punished or rewarded in this or other new lives, the evils of
existence would begin to disappear. The rich would know that they are only
trustees for the wealth they have and are bound to use it for the good of their
fellows, and the poor, satisfied that their lot is the just desert for prior
acts and aided by the more fortunate, would work out old bad Karma and sow the
seeds of only that which is good and harmonious.

National misery, such as that of Whitechapel in London (to
p.72
be imitated
ere long in New York), is the result of national Karma, which in its turn is
composed of the aggregation of not only the Karma of the individuals concerned
but also of that belonging to the rest of the nation. Ordinary reforms, whether
by law or otherwise, will not compass the end in view. This is demonstrated by
experience. But given that the ruling and richer classes believe in Karma and
Reincarnation, a universal widespread effort would at once be made by those
favorites of fortune toward not only present alleviation of miserable
conditions, but also in the line of educating the vulgar who now consider
themselves oppressed as well by their superiors as by fate. The opposite is now
the case, for we cannot call individual sporadic or sectarian efforts of
beneficence a national or universal attempt. Just now we have the General of the
Salvation Army proposing a huge scheme of colonization which is denounced by a
master of science, Prof. Huxley, as utopian, inefficient, and full of menace for
the future. And he, in the course of his comment, candidly admits the great
danger to be feared from the criminal and dissatisfied classes. But if the
poorer and less discriminating see the richer and the learned offering physical
assistance and intelligent explanations of the apparent injustice of life which
can be found only in Theosophy there would soon arise a possibility of making
effective the fine laws and regulations which many are ready to add to those
already proposed. Without such Theosophic philosophy and religion, the
constantly increasing concessions made to the clamor of the uneducated
democracy's demands will only end in inflating the actual majority with an undue
sense of their real power, and thus precipitate the convulsion which might he
averted by the other course.

This is a general statement of the only panacea, for if once believed in even
from a selfish motive it will compel, by a force that works from within all men,
the endeavor to escape from future unhappiness which is inevitable if they
violate the laws inhering in the universal mind.

The Twentieth CenturyNew York, March 12, 1891

THE PROMULGATION OF THEOSOPHY NOTE--This article is from an address given by Mr.
Judge in London, at the close of the European T.S. convention, July 15, 1892.

TOO much attention has been paid by several to the opinions of men in the
world who have a reputation in science and in scholarship. Their opinions are
valuable in their respective fields, but the ideas of the world should not be
permitted to dwarf our work or smother our hearts desire. These owners of
reputations do not entirely govern the progress of the race.

The great mass of mankind are of the common people, and it is with them we
have chiefly to deal. For our message does not come only for the scholar and the
scientific man. In spite of scholars, in spite of science, the superstitions of
the people live on. And perhaps those very superstitions are the means of
preserving to us the almost forgotten truth. Indeed, had we listened only to
those learned in books, we would long ago have lost all touch with our real
life.

If we believe in our message and in the aim of the Society, we ought never to
tire telling the people that which they can understand. And the rich as well as
the poor are the people to whom I refer. They need the help of Theosophy, for
they are wandering very close to the marshes of materialism. They must have a
true ethic, a right philosophy. Tell them of our great doctrines of Karma and
Reincarnation. Tell of these with confidence, unshaken by opinions of others,
and that confidence of yours will beget confidence in the hearer. Science and
exact scholarship are factors in our progress, but although they are important,
the mass of the people are more important
p.74
still. You cannot scientifically prove
everything. But if you are sure, as so many of us are, that we are immortal
pilgrims, then tell the people plainly and practically how they have been here
before in other bodies, and will be here again to suffer or enjoy just as they
may have decided in their other life, and they will believe it. They will soon
come to that belief because these laws are facts in nature, facts in their own
real experience. Were I to attend only to scholars, I should be able to do no
other work, while all the time my fellow-creatures--not scholars and in the vast
majority--would be deprived of the spiritual help it was my duty to give them.

We are really working for the future, laying the foundation for a greater day
than this. We are all coming back together to carry on this work if we now take
up all our opportunities. We must act from duty now, and thus be right for the
future.

Our duty is to recognize the great human soul with which we have to deal and
for which we should work. Its progress, its experience, its inner life, are
vastly more important than all our boasted civilization. That civilization could
easily be swept away, and what would be left? Your country could be frozen up
solidly in a few weeks, were the Gulf Stream deflected from these shores. Mines
have honeycombed your land, and a good earthquake might easily shake all your
material glories to destruction beneath the sea. What then could remain save the
human experience, the experience of the soul? But no cataclysm can destroy your
thoughts. They live on. And so all the work that you do for the inner life of
man can meet with no destruction, even though records and books and all the
ingenious works upon this outer plane were swept out of existence. If then you
believe in this mighty doctrine of Reincarnation, do not be afraid to tell it.

But do not, as Theosophists, confine yourselves to the intellect. The dry or
the interesting speculations upon all the details of cosmogony and anthropology
will not save the world. They do not cure sorrow nor appeal to those who feel
the grinding stones of fate, and know not why it should be so. Address
yourselves therefore to using your intellectual knowl-
p.75
edge of these high matters,
so as to practically affect the hearts of men.

Our debt to science is very great. It has leveled the barriers and made
freedom of thought a possibility. Science is our friend, for without its
progress you would now, at the order of the bigot, all be in the common jail. It
has combated the strength and cut the claws of bigoted churches. And even those
iconoclasts, such as Robert Ingersoll, who often violate the sentiment and
ideals of many good men, have helped in this progress, for they have done the
tearing down which must precede the building up. It is our place to supply the
new structure, for the churches are beginning to find that they must look into
subjects which once were kept out of sight. A sign of this was seen at a recent
Council of the Methodist Church in America, where their brightest lights
declared that they must accept evolution, or they would go down. The only church
which does not publicly as yet proclaim on these matters is the Roman Catholic.
It is so sly that I should not be surprised ere long to hear of its throwing its
mantle over all our doctrines publicly, and saying that such had always been its
doctrine. But if that step be taken it will be the fatal one. So even that need
give us no fear.

We are working with and for the great unseen, but actual, Brotherhood of
Humanity, and in our efforts, if sincere, will have the aid of those our
Brothers who have perfected themselves before us and are ever ready to help on
the human family. So if we are firmly fixed in that belief, we can never weaken.

I have heard some words about our pretending to be undogmatic, or that our
claim to freedom is against the fact. I do not hold such an opinion. Our Society
is, as a body, wholly unsectarian. It must always be so. But that does not
affect the inevitable result of so many joined in one effort. A large number of
us must have come at last to a common belief. This we can boldly say, and at the
same time also that no enquirer is obliged to subscribe to those beliefs. For
this we have the warrant, not only of our own statutes, but also that of the
oft-
p.76
repeated declarations of H. P. Blavatsky. If I have a belief which works
with all the problems that vex us so much, then I will tell it to my fellow who
has joined these ranks. If wrong, the interchange of thought will correct me; if
right, the truth must at last prevail. In this, Brotherhood means toleration of
opinion, and not a fear of declaring the beliefs you hold, nor does that
declaration negative in the least the claim to unsectarianism.

This Society is a small germ of a nucleus for a real outer Brotherhood. If we
work aright the day must come when we shall have accomplished our aim and formed
the nucleus. If we had five hundred members in the Society loving one another
with true hearts, not criticizing nor condemning, and all bent on one aim with
one belief we could sweep the whole world with our thoughts. And this is our
work in the future, the work traced out for us by those Masters in whom so many
of us firmly believe.

If we only have patience, what a glorious, wide, and noble prospect opens up
before us!

UPANISHADS ON RE-BIRTH

Hence one whose fire is burned out is reborn through the tendencies in
mind; according to his thoughts he enters life. But linked by the fire with
the Self, this life leads to a world of recompense.--Prashna Upanishad.

Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return.--Genesis.

THE above quotation from Prashna Upanishad gives the old doctrine,
the same as in Buddhism, that re-birth is due to mind and to the tendencies
therein. "Whose fire has burned out" means the fire of life expiring. "According
to his thoughts" does not refer to what one wishes to have for rebirth, but to
the seeds of thought left in the mind from the thinking of each hour of life;
these in a mass make a tendency or many tendencies which on coming out either
keep the soul to that family in all modes of thought and act or tend to
segregate the soul from the circle into which it was born. "This life leads to a
world of recompense," because by the fire of life it is linked to the Self,
which being thus bound goes after death to the state where recompense is its
portion. The alternation to and fro from one state to another for purposes of
compensation is not the attainment of knowledge but the subjection to results
eternally, unless the soul strives to find the truth and becomes free, and
ceases to set up causes for future births.

A Jewish tradition says that Adam had to reincarnate as David and later as
the Messiah; hence "to dust thou shalt return."

Path, February, 1894

REINCARNATION IN JUDAISMAND THE
BIBLE

THE lost chord of Christianity is the doctrine of Reincarnation. It was
beyond doubt taught in the early days of the cult, for it was well known to the
Jews who produced the men who founded Christianity. The greatest of all the
Fathers of the Church--Origen--no doubt believed in the doctrine. He taught
pre-existence and the wandering of the soul. This could hardly have been
believed without also giving currency to reincarnation, as the soul could
scarcely wander in any place save the earth. She was in exile from Paradise, and
for sins committed had to revolve and wander. Wander where? would be the next
question. Certainly away from Paradise, and the short span of human life would
not meet the requirements of the case. But a series of reincarnations will meet
all the problems of life as well as the necessities of the doctrines of exile,
of wanderings for purification, of being known to God and being judged by him
before birth, and of other dogmas given out among the Jews and of course well
known to Jesus and whoever of the seventy-odd disciples were not in the deepest
ignorance. Some of the disciples were presumably ignorant men, such as the
fishermen, who had depended on their elders for instruction, but not all were of
that sort, as the wonderful works of the period were sufficiently exciting to
come to the ears of even Herod. Paul cannot be accused of ignorance, but was
with Peter and James one of several who not only knew the new ideas but were
well versed in the old ones. And those old ones are to be found in the Old
Testament and in the Commentaries, in the Zohar, the Talmud, and the other works
and sayings of the Jews, all of which built up a body of dogmas accepted by the
people and the Rabbis. Hence sayings of Jesus, of Paul, and others have to be
viewed with the well-known and never-disputed doctrines of the day held down to
the present time, borne well in mind so as to make
p.79
passages clear and show what
was tacitly accepted. Jesus himself said that he intended to uphold and buttress
the law, and that law was not only the matter found in the book the Christian
theologians saw fit to accept, but also in the other authorities of which all
except the grossly unlearned were cognizant. So when we find Herod listening to
assertions that John or Jesus was this, that, or the other prophet or great man
of olden time, we know that he was with the people speculating on the doctrine
of reincarnation or "coming back," and as to who a present famous person may
have been in a former life. Given as it is in the Gospels as a mere incident, it
is very plain that the matter was court gossip in which long philosophical
arguments were not indulged in, but the doctrine was accepted and then personal
facts gone into for amusement as well as for warning to the king. To an Eastern
potentate such a warning would be of moment, as he, unlike a Western man, would
think that a returning great personage would of necessity have not only
knowledge but also power, and that if the people had their minds attracted to a
new aspirant for the leadership they would be inflamed beyond control with the
idea that an old prophet or former king had come back to dwell in another body
with them. The Christians have no right, then, to excise the doctrine of
reincarnation from their system if it was known to Jesus, if it was brought to
his attention and was not condemned at all but tacitly accepted, and further,
finally, if in any single case it was declared by Jesus as true in respect to
any person. And that all this was the case can, I think, be clearly shown.

First for the Jews, from whom Jesus was born, and to whom he said
unequivocally he came as a missionary or reformer. The Zohar is a work of great
weight and authority among the Jews. In II, 199 b, it says that "all souls are
subject to revolutions." This is metempsychosis or a'leen b'gilgoola;
but it declares that "men do not know the way they have been judged in all
time." That is, in their "revolutions" they lose a complete memory of the acts
that have led to judgment. This is precisely the Theosophical doctrine. The
Kether Malkuth says, "If she, the soul, be pure, then she shall obtain
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favor ..
. but if she hath been defiled, then she shall wander for a time in pain and
despair. . . until the days of her purification." If the soul be pure and if she
comes at once from God at birth, how could she be defiled? And where is she to
wander if not on this or some other world until the days of her purification?
The Rabbis always explained it as meaning she wandered down from Paradise
through many revolutions or births until purity was regained.

Under the name of "Din Gilgol Neshomes" the doctrine of reincarnation is
constantly spoken of in the Talmud. The term means "the judgment of the
revolutions of the souls." And Rabbi Manassa, son of Israel, one of the most
revered, says in his book Nishmath Hayem: "The belief or the doctrine
of the transmigration of souls is a firm and infallible dogma
accepted by the whole assemblage of our church with one accord, so that there is
none to be found who would dare to deny it. . . . Indeed, there is a great
number of sages in Israel who hold firm to this doctrine so that they made it a
dogma, a fundamental point of our religion. We are therefore in duty bound to
obey and to accept this dogma with acclamation . . . as the truth of it has been
incontestably demonstrated by the Zohar, and all books of the Kabalists."

These demonstrations hold, as do the traditions of the old Jews, that the
soul of Adam reincarnated in David, and that on account of the sin of David
against Uriah it will have to come again in the expected Messiah. And out of the
three letters ADM, being the name of the first man, the Talmudists always made
the names Adam, David and Messiah. Hence this in the Old Testament: "And they
will serve Jhvh their God and David their king whom I shall reawaken
for them." That is, David reincarnates again for the people. Taking the judgment
of God on Adam "for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return," the Hebrew
interpreters said that since Adam had sinned it was necessary for him to
reincarnate on earth in order to make good the evil committed in his first
existence; so he comes as David, and later is to come as Messiah. The same
doctrine was always applied by the Jews
p.81
to Moses, Seth, and Abel, the latter
spelt Habel. Habel was killed by Cain, and then to supply the loss the Lord gave
Seth to Adam; he died, and later on Moses is his reincarnation as the guide of
the people, and Seth was said by Adam to be the reincarnation of Habel. Cain
died and reincarnated as Yethrokorah, who died, the soul waiting till the time
when Habel came back as Moses and then incarnated as the Egyptian who was killed
by Moses; so in this case Habel comes back as Moses, meets Cain in the person of
the Egyptian, and kills the latter. Similarly it was held that Bileam, Laban,
and Nabal were reincarnations of the one soul or individuality. And of Job it
was said that he was the same person once known as Thara, the father of Abraham;
by which they explained the verse of Job (ix, 21), "Though I were perfect, yet
would I not know my own soul," to mean that he would not recognize himself as
Thara.

All this is to be had in mind in reading Jeremiah, "Before I formed thee in
the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified
thee"; or in Romans ix, v, 11, 13, after telling that Jacob and Esau being not
yet born, "Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated"; or the ideas of the people
that "Elias was yet to first come"; or that some of the prophets were there in
Jesus or John; or when Jesus asked the disciples "Whom do men think that I am?"
There cannot be the slightest doubt, then, that among the Jews for ages and down
to the time of Jesus the ideas above outlined prevailed universally. Let us now
come to the New Testament.

St. Matthew relates in the eleventh chapter the talk of Jesus on the subject
of John, who is declared by him to be the greatest of all, ending in the 14th
verse, thus:

And if ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come.

Here he took the doctrine for granted, and the "if" referred not to any
possible doubts on that, but simply as to whether they would accept his
designation of John as Elias. In the 17th chapter he once more takes up the
subject thus:

10. And his disciples asked him saying, Why, then, say the scribes that
Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said
p.82
unto them; Elias truly
shall first come and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elias is come
already, and they knew him not but have done to him whatsoever they listed.
Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them. Then the disciples
understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

The statement is repeated in Mark, chapter ix, v. 13, omitting the name of
John. It is nowhere denied. It is not among any of the cases in which the
different Gospels contradict each other; it is in no way doubtful. It is not
only a reference to the doctrine of reincarnation, but is also a clear
enunciation of it. It goes much further than the case of the man who was born
blind, when Jesus heard the doctrine referred to, but did not deny it nor
condemn it in any way, merely saying that the cause in that case was not for sin
formerly committed, but for some extraordinary purpose, such as the case of the
supposed dead man when he said that the man was not dead but was to be used to
show his power over disease. In the latter one he perceived there was one so far
gone to death that no ordinary person could cure him, and in the blind man's
case the incident was like it. If he thought the doctrine pernicious, as it must
be if untrue, he would have condemned it at the first coming up, but not only
did he fail to do so, he distinctly himself brought it up in the case of John,
and again when asking what were the popular notions as to himself under the
prevailing doctrines as above shown. Matthew xvi, v. 13, will do as an example,
as the different writers do not disagree, thus:

When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi he asked his
disciples, Whom do men say that I am? And they said, Some say that thou art
John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias or one of the prophets.

This was a deliberate bringing-up of the old doctrine, to which the disciples
replied, as all Jews would, without any dispute of the matter of reincarnation;
and the reply of Jesus was not a confutation of the notion, but a distinguishing
of himself from the common lot of sages and prophets by showing himself to be an
incarnation of God and not a reincarnation of any saint or sage. He did not
bring it up to dispute and condemn as he would and did do in other matters; but
to
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the very contrary he evidently referred to it so as to use it for showing
himself as an incarnate God. And following his example the disciples never
disputed on that; they were all aware of it; St. Paul must have held it when
speaking of Esau and Jacob; St. John could have meant nothing but that in
Revelations, chap. iii, v. 12.

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he
shall go no more out.

Evidently he had gone out before or the words "no more" could have no place
or meaning. It was the old idea of the exile of the soul and the need for it to
be purified by long wandering before it could be admitted as a "pillar in the
temple of God." And until the ignorant ambitious monks after the death of Origen
had gotten hold of Christianity, the doctrine must have ennobled the new
movement. Later the Council of Constantinople condemned all such notions
directly in the face of the very words of Jesus, so that at last it ceased to
vibrate as one of the chords, until finally the prophecy of Jesus that he came
to bring a sword and division and not peace was fulfilled by the warring nations
of Christian lands who profess him in words but by their acts constantly deny
him whom they call "the meek and lowly."

W.Q.J.

Path, February, 1894

REINCARNATION IN THE BIBLE

AN exhaustive paper on this subject is not contemplated in this article, but
even a sketch will show that the Christian Bible has in it the doctrine of
Reincarnation. Of course those who adhere only to what the church now teaches on
the subject of man, his nature and destiny, will not quickly accept any
construction outside of the theological one, but there are many who, while not
in the church, still cling to the old book from which they were taught.

In the first place, it must be remembered that the writers of the biblical
books were Jews with few exceptions, and that the founder of
Christianity--Jesus--was himself a Jew. An examination of his own sayings shows
that he thought his mission was to the Jews only and not to the Gentiles. He
said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." This
clearly referred to the Jews and as clearly excluded the Gentiles. And on one
occasion he refused for some time to do anything for a Gentile woman until her
importunity at last compelled him to act; and then too he referred to his
mission to the Jews. So in looking into these things we must also look at what
were the beliefs of the day. The Jews then most undoubtedly believed in
reincarnation. It was a commonly accepted doctrine as it is now in Hindustan,
and Jesus must have been acquainted with it. This we must believe on two
grounds: first, that he is claimed by the Christian to be the Son of God and
full of all knowledge; and second, that he had received an education which
permitted him to dispute with the doctors of divinity. The theory of
reincarnation was very old at the time, and the Old Testament books show this to
be so.

"Proverbs" gives the doctrine where Solomon says he was with the Creator from
the beginning and that then his (Solomon's) delights were with the sons of men
and in the habitable
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parts of the earth. This disposes of the explanation that
he meant he existed in the foreknowledge of the Creator, by the use of the
sentences detailing his life on the earth and with men. Then again Elias and
many other famous men were to actually return, and all the people were from time
to time expecting them. Adam was held to have reincarnated to carry on the work
he began so badly, and Seth, Moses, and others were reincarnated as different
great persons of subsequent epochs. The land is an oriental one, and the orientals always held the doctrine of the rebirth of mortals. It was not always
referred to in respect to the common man who died and was reborn, but came up
prominently when the names of great prophets, seers, and legislators were
mentioned. If readers will consult any well educated Jew who is not "reformed,"
they will gain much information on this national doctrine.

Coming now to the time of Jesus, all the foregoing has a bearing on what he
said. And, of course, if what he said does not agree with the view of the
church, then the church view must be given up or we will be guilty of doubting
the wisdom of Jesus and his ability to conduct a great movement. This, indeed,
is the real position of the Church, for it has promulgated dogmas and condemned
doctrines wholly without any authority, and some that Jesus held himself it has
put its anathema upon.

When there was brought into the presence of Jesus a man who was born blind,
the disciples naturally wondered why he had thus been punished by the Almighty,
and asked Jesus whether the man was thus born blind for some sin he had
committed, or one done by his parents. The question was put by them with the
doctrine of reincarnation fully accepted, for it is obvious the man must have
lived before, in their estimation, in order to have done sin for which he was
then punished. Now if the doctrine was wrong and pernicious, as the church has
declared it to be by anathematizing it, Jesus must have known it to be wrong,
and then was the time for him to deny the whole theory and explode it, as well
as definitely putting his seal of condemnation upon it for all time. Yet he did
not do
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so; he waived it then and said the blindness was for other reasons in
that case. It was not a denial of it. (See November Forum.*)
* The Theosophical Forum was a small publication issued monthly to
all members of the American Section of the Theosophical Society, comprised of
answers to questions on the Theosophical philosophy. The reply to which Mr.
Judge here refers elaborates on the explanation of Jesus statement (John, 9)
concerning the man who was born blind--Eds. (of Theosophy Company)

But again when John the Baptist, who had, so to say, ordained Jesus to his
ministry, was killed by the ruler of the country, the news was brought to Jesus,
and he then distinctly affirmed the doctrine of reincarnation. Hence his waiving
the matter in the case of the blind man is shown to have been no refusal to
credit the theory. Jesus affirmed the doctrine, and also affirmed the old ideas
in relation to the return to earth of the prophets by saying that the ruler had
killed John not knowing that he, John, was Elias "who was for to come."

On another occasion the same subject arose between Jesus and the disciples
when they were talking about the coming of a messenger before Jesus himself. The
disciples did not understand, and said that Elias was to come first as the
messenger, and Jesus distinctly replied that Elias had come already in the
person called John the Baptist. This time, if any, was the time for Jesus to
condemn the doctrine, but, on the contrary, he boldly asserts it and teaches it,
or rather shows its application to certain individuals, as was most interesting
and instructive for the disciples who had not enough insight to be able to tell
who any man was in his real immortal nature. But Jesus, being a seer, could look
into the past and tell them just what historical character any one had been. And
so he gave them details about John, and we must suppose more particulars were
gone into than have come down to us in the writings naturally incomplete and
confessed to be but a partial narrative of the doings and sayings of Jesus.

It must now be evident that there is a diametrical disagreement between the
church and Jesus. The church has cursed the doctrine he taught. Which is right?
The true believer in Jesus must reply that Jesus is; the church will say it is
right by acting on that line. For if the doctrine be taught, then all
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men are
put on an equal basis, and hence the power of the human rulers of heaven and
earth is at once weakened. Such an important doctrine as this is one that Jesus
could not afford to pass over. And if it is wrong, then it was his duty to
condemn it: indeed, we must suppose that he would have done so were it not
entirely right. And as he went further, even to the extent of affirming it, then
it stands with his seal of approval for all time.

John the Revealer believed it of course, and so in his book we find the verse
saying that the voice of the Almighty declared that the man who overcame should
"go out no more" from heaven. This is mere rhetoric if reincarnation be denied;
it is quite plain as a doctrine if we construe it to mean that the man who by
constant struggle and many lives at last overcomes the delusions of matter will
have no need to go out into life any more, but from that time will be a pillar,
what the Theosophist knows as "Dhyan Chohan" forevermore. And this is exactly
the old and oriental doctrine on the point.

St. Paul also gives the theory of reincarnation in his epistles where he
refers to the cases of Jacob and Esau, saying that the Lord loved the one and
hated the other before they were born. It is obvious that the Lord cannot love
or hate a non-existing thing, and that this means that Jacob and Esau had been
in their former lives respectively good and bad and therefore the Lord--or Karma
loved the one and hated the other before their birth as the men known as Jacob
and Esau. And Paul was here speaking of the same event that the older prophet
Malachi spoke of in strict adherence to the prevalent idea. Following Paul and
the disciples came the early fathers of the church, and many of them taught the
same. Origen was the greatest of them. He gave the doctrine specifically, and it
was because of the influence of his ideas that the Council of Constantinople 500
years after Jesus saw fit to condemn the whole thing as pernicious. This
condemnation worked because the fathers were ignorant men, most of them Gentiles
who did not care for old doctrines and, indeed, hated them. So it fell out of
the public teaching and was at last lost to the Western
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world. But it must
revive, for it is one of the founder's own beliefs, and as it gives a permanent
and forceful basis for ethics it is really the most important of all the
Theosophical doctrines.

WILLIAM BREHON

Path, December, 1892

CHRISTIAN FATHERS ON REINCARNATION

OUR brother George R. S. Mead, the General Secretary of the European Section
T.S., has held that whether or not Origen, the greatest of the Fathers, believed
in reincarnation, the Christian Church never formally anathematized the
doctrine. If this position is sound there will yet be an opportunity for the
Roman Church to declare the doctrine by holding that the anathema pronounced was
against a species of incarnation or of metempsychosis not very clearly defined
except as a pre-existence of the soul as opposed to a special creation for each
new body. This declaration can only be made by placing the future lives of the
soul on some other planet after leaving this one. That would be reincarnation,
but not as we understand it.

The issue of Lucifer for February has valuable contributions under
"Notes and Queries" on this subject, and from that I extract something.
Beausobre says:

It is a very ancient and general belief that souls are pure and heavenly
substances which exist before their bodies and come down from heaven to clothe
and animate them. . . . I only quote it to show that his nation (Jews)
believed for a long time back in the pre-existence of souls. . . . All the
most learned Greek fathers held this opinion, and a considerable portion of
the Latin fathers followed them herein. . . . It has been held by several
Christian philosophers. It was received into the Church until the fourth
century without being obnoxious to the charge of heresy.

Beausobre, however, calls the belief an "error." It would be interesting to
know whether it is not the fact that at about the fourth century the monks and
bishops were ignorant men who would be more likely to take up a narrow dogma
necessary for preservation of their power than to hold the broader and grander
one of pre-existence. Origen died about A.D. 254. He was so great and
learned that even in his lifetime other men forged his name to their own
writings. But while he was
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still living uneducated monks were flocking into the
ranks of the priesthood. They obtained enough strength to compel Jerome to turn
against Origen, although previously holding similar views. It was not learning,
then, nor spiritual knowledge that brought about the subsequent condemnation of
Origen, but rather bigotry and unspiritual ignorance. Origen distinctly held as
a fundamental idea "the original and indestructible unity of God and all
spiritual essences." This is precisely the doctrine of the Isovasya Upanishad,
which says:

When to a man who understands, the Self has become all things, what sorrow,
what trouble can there be to him who once beheld that unity?

Francks Kabbala is referred to in these answers as saying that
Origen taught transmigration as a necessary doctrine for the explaining of the
vicissitudes of life and the inequalities of birth. But the next quotation
throws doubt again into the question, closing, however, thus:

When the soul comes into the world it leaves the body which had been
necessary to it in the mothers womb, it leaves, I repeat, the body which
covered it, and puts on another body fit for the life we lead on earth. . . .
But as we do not believe in metempsychosis, nor that the soul can
ever be debased so as to enter into the bodies of brute animals...

There are several ways of looking at this. It may be charged that some one
interpolated the italicized words; or that Origen was referring to
transmigrating back to animals; or, lastly, that he and his learned friends had
a theory about incarnation and reincarnation not clearly given. My opinion is
that he wrote as above simply as to retrograde rebirth, and that he held the
very identical doctrine as to reincarnation found in Isis Unveiled and
which caused it to be charged that H.P.B. did not know or teach reincarnation in
1877. Of course I cannot produce a quotation. But how could such a voluminous
writer and deep thinker as Origen hold to the doctrines of unity with God, of
the final restoration of all souls to pristine purity, and of pre-existence,
without also having a reincarnation doctrine? There are many indications and
statements that there was an esoteric teaching on these subjects, just as it is
evident that Jesus had his private teaching for the select
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disciples. For that
reason Origen might teach pre-existence but hold back the other. He says,
according to Franck, that the question was not of metempsychosis according to
Plato, "but of an entirely different theory which is of a far more elevated
nature." It might have been this.

The soul, considered as spirit and not animal soul, is pure, of the essence
of God, and desirous of immortality through a person; the person may fail and
not be united to the soul; another and another person is selected; each one, if
a failure in respect to union with the Self, passes into the sum of experience;
but finally a personal birth is found wherein all former experiences are united
and union gained. From thenceforward there is no more falling back, for
immortality through a person has been attained. Prior to this great event the
soul existed, and hence the doctrine of pre-existence. For all of the personal
births the soul was the God, the Higher Self of each, the luminous one, the
Augoeides; existing thus from all time, it might be the cause of rebirths but
not itself be reincarnated, as it merely overshadowed each birth without being
wholly in the flesh. Such a doctrine, extremely mystical and providing for each
a personal God with a great possibility held out through reunion, could well be
called by Origen "a different theory" from metempsychosis and "of more elevated
character."

When once more the modern Christian Church admits that its founders believed
in pre-existence and that Jesus did not condemn reincarnation, a long step will
have been taken toward uprooting many intolerant and illogical doctrines now
held.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
Path, May, 1894

FRIENDS OR ENEMIES IN THE FUTURE

THE fundamental doctrines of Theosophy are of no value unless they are
applied to daily life. To the extent to which this application goes they become
living truths, quite different from intellectual expressions of doctrine. The
mere intellectual grasp may result in spiritual pride, while the living doctrine
becomes an entity through the mystic power of the human soul. Many great minds
have dwelt on this. Saint Paul wrote:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity,
I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift
of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have
all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am
nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give
my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

The Voice of the Silence, expressing the views of the highest
schools of occultism, asks us to step out of the sunlight into the shade so as
to make more room for others, and declares that those whom we help in this life
will help us in our next one.

Buttresses to these are the doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation. The first
shows that we must reap what we sow, and the second that we come back in the
company of those with whom we lived and acted in other lives. St. Paul was in
complete accord with all other occultists, and his expressions above given must
be viewed in the light Theosophy throws on all similar writings. Contrasted with
charity, which is love of our fellows, are all the possible virtues and
acquirements. These are all nothing if charity be absent. Why? Because they die
with the death of the uncharitable person; their value is naught, and that being
is reborn without friend and without capacity.

This is of the highest importance to the earnest Theosophist, who may be
making the mistake of obtaining intellectual bene-
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fits, but remains uncharitable.
The fact that we are now working in the Theosophical movement means that we did
so in other lives, must do so again, and, still more important, that those who
are now with us will be reincarnated in our company on our next rebirth.

Shall those whom we now know or whom we are destined to know before this life
ends be our friends or enemies, our aiders or obstructors in that coming life?
And what will make them hostile or friendly to us then? Not what we shall say or
do to and for them in the future life. For no man becomes your friend in a
present life by reason of present acts alone. He was your friend, or you his,
before in a previous life. Your present acts but revive the old friendship,
renew the ancient obligation.

Was he your enemy before, he will be now even though you do him service now,
for these tendencies last always more than three lives. They will be more and
still more our aids if we increase the bond of friendship of today by charity.
Their tendency to enmity will be one-third lessened in every life if we persist
in kindness, in love, in charity now. And that charity is not a gift of money,
but charitable thought for every weakness, to every failure.

Our future friends or enemies, then, are those who are with us and to be with
us in the present. If they are those who now seem inimical, we make a grave
mistake and only put off the day of reconciliation three more lives if we allow
ourselves today to be deficient in charity for them. We are annoyed and hindered
by those who actively oppose as well as others whose mere looks, temperament,
and unconscious action fret and disturb us. Our code of justice to ourselves,
often but petty personality, incites us to rebuke them, to criticise, to attack.
It is a mistake for us to so act. Could we but glance ahead to next life, we
would see these for whom we now have but scant charity crossing the plain of
that life with ourselves and ever in our way, always hiding the light from us.
But change our present attitude, and that new life to come would show these
bores and partial enemies and obstructors helping us,
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aiding our every effort.
For Karma may give them then greater opportunities than ourselves and better
capacity.

Is any Theosophist, who reflects on this, so foolish as to continue now, if
he has the power to alter himself, a course that will breed a crop of thorns for
his next life's reaping? We should continue our charity and kindness to our
friends whom it is easy to wish to help, but for those whom we naturally
dislike, who are our bores now, we ought to take especial pains to aid and
carefully toward them cultivate a feeling of love and charity. This adds
interest to our Karmic investment. The opposite course, as surely as sun rises
and water runs down hill, strikes interest from the account and enters a heavy
item on the wrong side of life's ledger.

And especially should the whole Theosophical organization act on the lines
laid down by St. Paul and The Voice of the Silence. For Karmic tendency
is an unswerving law. It compels us to go on in this movement of thought and
doctrine; it will bring back to reincarnation all in it now. Sentiment cannot
move the law one inch; and though that emotion might seek to rid us of the
presence of these men and women we presently do not fancy or approve--and there
are many such in our ranks for every one--the law will place us again in company
with friendly tendency increased or hostile feeling diminished, just as we now
create the one or prevent the other. It was the aim of the founders of the
Society to arouse tendency to future friendship; it ought to be the object of
all our members.

What will you have? In the future life, enemies or friends?

EUSEBIO URBAN
Path, January, 1893

RESPECTING REINCARNATION

OBJECTIONS frequently raised against "Reincarnation," and that appear to
those who make them to be strong, are some growing out of the emotional part of
our nature. They say, "We do not wish to be some one else in another life; how
can we recognize our friends and loved ones if they and we thus change our
personality? The absorbing attachments we form here are such that happiness
would seem impossible without those we love."

It is useless to say in reply that, if Reincarnation be the law, it can and
will make no difference what we would like or dislike. So long as one is
governed by his likes and dislikes, logical arguments will not dissipate
objections, and, if it is coldly asserted that the beloved objects of our
affection pass at death forever beyond us, no relief is afforded to the mind nor
is a strictly accurate statement made. In fact, one of the miseries of
conditioned existence is the apparent liability of forever losing those upon
whom we place our hearts. So to meet this difficulty raised by ever present
death, the christian churches have invented their heaven in which reunion is
possible under a condition, the acceptance of the dogma of the Redeemer. None of
their believers seem to consider that, inasmuch as constantly many of those most
closely bound to us by every tie do not and never will meet the prerequisite
condition, happiness in that heaven cannot be possible when we constantly are
aware that those unbelievers are suffering in hell, for, enough memory being
left to permit us to recognize believing friends, we cannot forget the others.
Greater than ever, then, that difficulty becomes.

What are these loves? must be asked. They are either (a) a love for the mere
physical body, or (b)one for the soul within. Of course in the first
case, the body being disintegrated at death, it is not possible for us, nor need
we wish--
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unless we are grossly materialistic--to see that in the other life. And
personality belongs only to the body. Hence, if the soul that we do love
inhabits another physical frame, it is the law--a part of the law of
Reincarnation not often stated or dwelt on--that we will again, when incarnated,
meet that same soul in the new tenement. We cannot, however, always recognize
it. But that, the recognition or memory of those whom we knew before, is one of
the very objects of our study and practice. Not only is this the law as found in
ancient books, but it has been positively stated, in the history of the
Theosophical Society, in a letter from an Adept addressed not many years ago to
some London theosophists. In it he asked them if they imagined that they were
together as incarnated beings for the first time, stated that they were not, and
laid down the rule that the real affinities of soul life drew them together on
earth.

To be associated against our will with those who lay upon us the claim of
mother, father, brother, son, or wife from a previous life would neither be just
nor necessary. Those relations, as such, grew out of physical ties alone, and
souls that are alike, who really love each other, as well as those who harbor
hate, are brought together in mortal bodies as now father and now son--, or
otherwise.

So, then, with the doctrine of Devachan we have the answer. In that state we
have with us, for all practical purposes and to suit our desire, every one whom
we loved on earth: upon being reincarnated we are again with those whose souls
we are naturally attracted to.

By living up to the highest and best of our convictions, for humanity and not
for self, we make it possible that we shall at last recognize in some
earth-life those persons whom we love, and to lose whom forever seems such a
dreary and uninviting prospect.

Path, August, 1888

ARGUMENT FOR REINCARNATION

IT has been suggested to the PATH that theosophists
jot down as they occur any arguments hit upon to support the doctrine of
reincarnation. One furnishes this: That the persistency of individual character
and attitude of mind seems a strong argument; and adduces the fact that when he
was a youth thirty years ago he wrote a letter to himself upon questions about
God, nature, and the inner man, and finds now upon re-reading it that it almost
exactly expresses his present attitude. Also he thinks that the inner character
of each shows itself in early youth, persisting through life; and as each
character is different there must have been reincarnation to account for the
differences. And that the assertion that differences in character are due to
heredity seems to be disposed of by the persistency of essential character, even
if, as we know to be the case, scientists did not begin to deny the sufficiency
of heredity to account for our differences.

Another writes: If heredity would account for that which, existing in our
life, makes us feel that we have lived here before, then the breeding of dogs
and horses would show similar great differences as are observed in men. But a
high-bred slut will bring forth a litter of pups by a father of equal breed, all
exhibiting one character, whereas in the very highest bred families among men it
is well known that the children will differ from each other so much that we
cannot rely upon the result. Then again, considering the objections raised on
ground of heredity, it should not be forgotten that but small attention has been
paid to those cases where heredity will not give the explanation.

Inherent differences of
character the great differences in capacity seem to
call for reincarnation as the explanation. Notice that the savages have the same
brains and bodies as ours, yet not the same character or intelligence; they seem
to be unprogressed egos who are unable to make the machine of brain to respond
to its highest limit.

Path, August. 1891

WHY RACES DIE OUT

A THEOSOPHIST'S REASONFORIT

IN our own times we have instances of the disappearance of races, and very
often it is attributed to the influence of civilized vices. The Hottentots have
entirely gone, and the decimation of the Hawaiian Islanders is about complete.
Similarly the Red Indians of the Continents of North and South America have been
surely, if slowly, passing away, so that now there is only a remnant of them
left, and soon after the Spanish conquest the great masses of the aboriginal
inhabitants had faded away.

The Hottentots had reached almost the acme of decline when we knew them, but
the Aztecs, Toltecs, and other South Americans had not reached such a pitch when
they encountered the Spanish. The Red Indians had gone down between the two,
while the Hawaiians were still below the Indians. It has always seemed to me
that the claim that these races were destroyed by taking up our vices is not
well founded. It is pleasant, perhaps, to the pessimist who dislikes this
civilization, but it will not agree with all the facts. The decrease of
population in the Hawaiian Islands cannot be justly attributed to rum and social
evils taken over from us, although a great deal of injury no doubt arose from
those abuses. About the Hottentots we may feel pretty sure, because their
degradation was almost complete when they were discovered, and the Mexicans and
South American people had no time to adopt Spanish vices, nor did such exist in
a degree to kill off the inhabitants.

The theory outlined by H. P. Blavatsky is that when the Egos inhabiting any
race have reached the limit of experience possible in it, they begin to desert
that race environment and seek for another, which, in the sure processes of
natures evolution, is certain to be in existence elsewhere on the globe. The
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Egos then having left the old families, the latter begin to die out through
sterility attacking the females, so that fewer and fewer bodies are made for
inhabitancy. This goes on from century to century pari passu with mental
decay. And this mental deterioration arises from the fact that the small stock
of what we might call the retarded Egos who come in during the process have not
had the experience and training in that particular environment which had been
gone through by those who have deserted to another race, and hence--on the
theosophical theory that brain is not the producer of mind--the whole
personnel of the old race rushes down in the scale, sooner or later
presenting the sad spectacle of a dying race. Final extinction is the result
when the process has gone far enough.

At the time when the first steps toward old age and decrepitude are taken by
such a race, the eternal cyclic laws that always bring about a universal
correspondence between the affairs of man and the operations of cosmos cause
cataclysms to happen, and even in the seeming height of a nation's power great
numbers of bodies are destroyed. Some indications of this may be seen in our own
day in the great destruction of human life that has begun to overtake the older
portions of the Chinese nation. These are finger posts that declare the
beginning of the exodus of the Egos who have had such a long experience in that
race environment that they have begun to emigrate elsewhere because their
experience has wrought in their character changes which unfit them for dealing
with the old bodies, and those are left for the starting of other less
progressed men. After the lapse of more years the natural cataclysms will
increase in violence and extent, engulfing more and more millions of bodies and
preparing for other cycles.

We may suppose that the Red Indians predecessors went through similar
experiences, for there are in the Americas evidences of great convulsions such
as upheavals from below and overflowing by water that deposited great masses of
mud. In one of the States there was lately found good evidence that animals had
been thus buried for ages. The men, having
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reason to guide them, removed
themselves to other parts to carry out the sad decrees of Karma which had
ordered their demise. And under the suggestion made above, the egos untried in
that environment only occupied the racial body for the sake of the experience
which might be gained during the time that is left. Now our civilization with
weapons and other means is completing the work, as it on its part fulfils the
law by creating on the old soil an entirely new race in which the experience
gained by the mind in prior cycles of existence may show itself forth.

This process is almost exactly that which happens in families. Reincarnating
egos continue in families that suit their mental progress just so long as is
needed; and if no more egos are in the cycle of rebirth exactly fitted to the
physical, psychical, and mental state of the family, it begins to die out. And
it even exhibits often in its own small way the phenomena of natural cataclysm,
for we know that sudden ruin and quick extinction often carry off an entire
family, leaving not even a descendant in the very remotest degree.

Hence I conclude that, like families, Races disappear when they are of no
further use in the gaining of experience by the great pilgrim soul.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
Path, October, 1891

REINCARNATION OF ANIMALS

VERY little has been said on the question whether or not the theory of
Reincarnation applies to animals in the same way as to man. Doubtless, if
Brahman members well acquainted with Sanscrit works on the general subject were
to publish their views, we should at least have a large mass of material for
thought and find many clues to the matter in the Hindu theories and allegories.
Even Hindu folk-lore would suggest much. Under all popular "superstitions" a
large element of truth can be found hidden away when the vulgar notion is
examined in the light of the Wisdom-Religion. A good instance of this on the
material plane is to be found in the new treatment proposed for small-pox. The
old superstition was that all patients with that disease must be treated and
kept in darkness. But the practise was given up by modern doctors. Recently,
however, some one had the usual "flash" and decided that perhaps the chemical
rays of the sun had something to do with the matter, and began to try red glass
for all windows where small-pox patients were. Success was reported, the theory
being that the disease was one where the chemical rays injured the skin and
health just as they do in ordinary sunburn. Here we see, if the new plan be
found right, that an old superstition was based on a law of nature. In the same
way the folk-lore of such an ancient people as the Hindu deserves scrutiny with
the object of discovering the buried truth. If they are possessed of such
notions regarding the fate of animals, careful analysis might give valuable
suggestion.

Looking at the question in the light of Theosophical theories, we see that a
wide distinction exists between man and animals. Man reincarnates as man because
he has got to the top of the present scale of evolution. He cannot go back, for
Manas is too much developed. He has a Devachan because he is
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a conscious
thinker. Animals cannot have Manas so much developed, and so cannot be
self-conscious in the sense that man is. Besides all this, the animal kingdom,
being lower, has the impulse still to rise to higher forms. But here we have the
distinct statement by the Adepts through H.P.B. that while possibly animals may
rise higher in their own kingdom they cannot in this evolution rise to the human
stage, as we have reached the middle or turning-point in the fourth round. On
this point H.P.B. has, in the second volume of the Secret Doctrine (first
ed.) at p. 196, a foot note as follows:

In calling the animals "Soulless," it is not depriving the beast, from the
humblest to the highest species, of a "soul," but only of a conscious
surviving Ego-soul, i.e., that principle which survives after a man and
reincarnates in a like man.

The animal has an astral body that survives the physical form for a short
period; but its (animal) Monad does not reincarnate in the same, but in a
higher species, and has no "Devachan" of course. It has the seeds of
all the human principles in itself, but they are latent.

Here the distinction above adverted to is made. It is due to the Ego-Soul,
that is, to Manas with Buddhi and Atma. Those principles
being latent in the animal, and the door to the human kingdom being closed, they
may rise to higher species but not to the man stage. Of course also it is not
meant that no dog or other animal ever reincarnates as dog, but that the monad
has tendency to rise to a higher species, whatever that be, whenever it has
passed beyond the necessity for further experience as "dog." Under the position
the author assumes it would be natural to suppose that the astral form of the
animal did not last long, as she says, and hence that astral appearances or
apparitions of animals were not common. Such is the fact. I have heard of a few,
but very few, cases where a favorite animal made an apparitional appearance
after death, but even the prolific field of spiritualism has not many instances
of the kind. And those who have learned about the astral world know that human
beings assume in that world the form of animal or other things which they in
character most resemble, and that this sort of apparition is not confined to the
dead but is more common among the living. It is by such
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signs that clairvoyants
know the very life and thought of the person before them. It was under the
operation of this law that Swedenborg saw so many curious things in his time.

The objection based on the immense number of animals both alive and dead as
calling for a supply of monads in that stage can be met in this way. While it is
stated that no more animal monads can enter on the man-stage, it is not said nor
inferred that the incoming supply of monads for the animal kingdom has stopped.
They may still be coming in from other worlds for evolution among the animals of
this globe. There is nothing impossible in it, and it will supply the answer to
the question, Where do the new animal monads come from, supposing that all the
present ones have exhausted the whole number of higher species possible here? It
is quite possible also that the animal monads may be carried on to other members
of the earth-chain in advance of man for the purpose of necessary development,
and this would lessen the number of their appearances here. For what keeps man
here so long is that the power of his thought is so great as to make a
Devachan for all lasting some fifteen centuries--with exceptions-- and for a
number who desire "heaven" a Devachan of enormous length. The animals,
however, being devoid of developed Manas, have no Devachan and
must be forced onwards to the next planet in the chain. This would be consistent
and useful, as it gives them a chance for development in readiness for the time
when the monads of that kingdom shall begin to rise to a new human kingdom. They
will have lost nothing, but, on the contrary, will be the gainers.

WILLIAM BREHON
Path, April, 1894

TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS

IS there any foundation for the doctrine of transmigration of souls which was
once believed in and is now held by some classes of Hindus?" is a question sent
to the PATH.

From a careful examination of the Vedas and Upanishads it will be found that
the ancient Hindus did not believe in this doctrine, but held, as so many
theosophists do, that "once a man, always a man," but of course there is the
exception of the case where men live bad lives persistently for ages. But it
also seems very clear that the later Brahmins, for the purpose of having a
priestly hold on the people or for other purposes, taught them the doctrine that
they and their parents might go after death into the bodies of animals, but I
doubt if the theory is held to such an extent as to make it a national doctrine.
Some missionaries and travelers have hastily concluded that it is the belief
because they saw the Hindu and the Jain alike acting very carefully as to
animals and insects, avoiding them in the path, carefully brushing insects out
of the way at a great loss of time, so as to not step on them. This, said the
missionary, is because they think that in these forms their dead friends or
relatives may be living.

The real reason for such care is that they think they have no right to
destroy life which it is not in their power to restore. While I have some views
on the subject of transmigration of a certain sort that I am not now disposed to
disclose, I may be allowed to give others on the question "How might such an
idea arise out of the true doctrine?"

First, what is the fate of the astral body, and in what way and how much does
that affect the next incarnation of the man? Second, what influence has man on
the atoms, millions in number, which from year to year enter into the
composition of his body, and how far is he--the soul--responsible for
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those
effects and answerable for them in a subsequent life of joy or sorrow or
opportunity or obscurity? These are important questions.

The student of the theosophic scheme admits that after death the astral soul
either dies and dissipates at once, or remains wandering for a space in Kama
Loca. If the man was spiritual, or what is sometimes called "very good," then
his astral soul dissipates soon; if he was wicked and material, then the astral
part of him, being too gross to easily disintegrate, is condemned, as it were,
to flit about in Kama Loca, manifesting itself in spiritualistic séance
rooms as the spirit of some deceased one, and doing damage to the mental
furniture of mortals while it suffers other pains itself. Seers of modem times
have declared that such eidolons or spooks assume the appearance of beasts or
reptiles according to their dominant characteristics. The ancients sometimes
taught that these gross astral forms, having a natural affinity for the lower
types, such as the animal kingdom, gravitated gradually in that direction and
were at last absorbed on the astral plane of animals, for which they furnished
the sidereal particles needed by them as well as by man. But this in no sense
meant that the man himself went into an animal, for before this result had
eventuated the ego might have already re-entered life with a new physical and
astral body. The common people, however, could not make these distinctions, and
so very easily held the doctrine as meaning that the man became an animal. After
a time the priests and seers took up this form of the tenet and taught it
outright. It can be found in the Desatir, where it is said that tigers
and other ferocious animals are incarnations of wicked men, and so on. But it
must be true that each man is responsible and accountable for the fate of his
astral body left behind at death, since that fate results directly from the mans
own acts and life.

Considering the question of the atoms in their march along the path of
evolution, another cause for a belief wrongly held in transmigration into lower
forms can be found. The initiates could teach and thoroughly understand how it
is that
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each ego is responsible for the use he makes of the atoms in space, and
how each may and does imprint a definite character and direction upon all the
atoms used throughout life, but the uninitiated just as easily would
misinterpret this also and think it referred to transmigration. Each man has a
duty not only to himself but also to the atoms in use. He is the great, the
highest educator of them. Being each instant in possession of some, and likewise
ever throwing them off, he should so live that they gain a fresh impulse to the
higher life of man as compared with the brute. This impress and impulse given by
us either confer an affinity for human bodies and brains, or for that which,
corresponding to brutal lives and base passions, belongs to the lower kingdoms.
So the teachers inculcated this, and said that if the disciple lived a wicked
life his atoms would be precipitated down instead of up in this relative scale.
If he was dull and inattentive, the atoms similarly impressed traveled into
sticks and stones. In each case they to some extent represented the man, just as
our surroundings, furniture, and clothing generally represent us who collect and
use them. So from both these true tenets the people might at last come to
believe in transmigration as being a convenient and easy way of formulating the
problem and of indicating a rule of conduct.

HADJI
Path, March, 1891

THE PERSIAN STUDENT'S DOCTRINE

BEFORE the flashing diamond in the mysterious mountain behind the Temple
began to lose its brilliance, many foreigners had visited the Island. Among them
were students who came from Persia. Coming that great distance they sought more
knowledge, as in their own land the truth was already beginning to be forgotten.
It was hidden under a thick crust of fanciful interpretations of the sayings of
their sages which were fast turning into superstitious notions. And these young
men thought that in the Island, the fame of which had spread over land and sea,
they would find learning and wisdom and the way to power. But yet while in such
a frame of mind, they regarded some things as settled even for sages. What they
said did not have much influence on me until they began to quote some of the old
writings from the prophets of their country, attempting to prove that men,
though god-like and immortal, transmigrated sometimes backwards into beasts and
birds and insects. As some old Buddhist monks had years before given out the
same idea with hints of mystery underneath, the sayings of these visitors began
to trouble me. They quoted these verses from the prophet the Great Abad:

Those who, in the season of prosperity, experience pain and grief, suffer
them on account of their words or deeds in a former body, for which the Most
Just now punisheth them.

Whosoever is an evil doer, on him He first inflicteth pain under the human
form; for sickness, the sufferings of children while in their mothers womb,
and after they are out of it, and suicide, and being hurt by ravenous animals,
and death, and being subjected to want from birth till death, are all
retributions for past actions; and in like manner as to goodness.

The lion, the tiger, the leopard, the panther, . . . with all ravenous
animals, whether birds or quadrupeds or creeping things, have once possessed
authority: and every one whom they kill hath been their aider or abetter, who
did evil by supporting, or assisting, or by the orders of, that exalted class;
and having given pain to harmless animals are now punished by their own
masters.
p.108
The horse submits to be ridden on, and the ox, the camel, the mule, and the
ass bear burdens. And these in a former life were men who imposed burdens on
others unjustly.

Such persons as are foolish and evil doers, being enclosed in the body of
vegetables, meet with the reward of their stupidity and misdeeds. And such as
possess illaudable knowledge and do evil are enclosed in the body of minerals
until their sins be purified; after which they are delivered from this
suffering, and are once more united to a human body; and according as they act
in it they again meet with retribution.

These young men made such good arguments of these texts, and dwelt so
strongly upon the great attainments of Abad, who was beyond doubt a prophet of
insight, that doubts arose in my mind. While the verses did not deny the old
doctrine of man's reincarnation, they added a new view to the matter that had
never suggested itself to me before. The students pointed out that there was a
very wise and consistent doctrine in those verses wherein it was declared that
murderers, tyrants, and such men would be condemned to inhabit the bodies of
such murderous beasts as lions and tigers. They made out a strong case on the
other verses also, showing that those weak but vicious men who had aided and
abetted the stronger and more violent murderers should be condemned to
precipitation out of the human cycle into the bodies of defenseless animals, in
company with ferocious beasts, by the strength and ferocity of which they would
at last be destroyed themselves. And thus, said these visitors, they proceed in
each other's company, lower and lower in the scale of organized life, reaching
at last those kingdoms of nature like the mineral, where differentiation in the
direction of man is not yet visible. And from there the condemned beings would
be ground out into the great mass and slime at the very bottom of nature's
ladder.

Not wishing to admit or accept these doctrines from strangers, I engaged in
many arguments with them on the matter, until at last they left the Island to
continue their pilgrimage.

So one day, being troubled in mind about these sayings of Abad, which,
indeed, I heard from the students were accepted in many countries and given by
several other prophets, I sought out the old man who so often before had solved
prob-
p.109
lems for me. He was a man of sorrow, for although possessor of power and
able to open up the inner planes of nature, able to give to a questioner the
inner sight for a time so that one could see for himself the real truth of
material things, something ever went with him that spoke of a sorrow he could
not tell about. Perhaps he was suffering for a fault the magnitude of which no
one knew but himself; perhaps the final truths eluded him; or maybe he had a
material belief at bottom. But he was always kind, and ever ready to give me the
help I needed provided I had tried myself in every way and failed to obtain it.

"Brother," I said, "do we go into animals when we die?"

"Who said that we do?" was his answer.

"It is declared by the old prophet Abad of the Worshippers of Fire that we
thus fall down from our high estate gained with pain and difficulty."

"Do you believe it; have you reasoned it out or accepted the doctrine?"

"No," I said, "I have not accepted it. Much as I may reason on it, there are
defects in my replies, for there seems to be consistency in the doctrine that
the ferocious may go into the ferocious and vicious into the wild animals; the
one destroying the other and man, the hunter, killing the ferocious. Can you
solve it?"

Turning on me the deep and searching gaze he used for those who asked when he
would determine if curiosity alone moved them, he said, "I will show you the
facts and the corrupted doctrine together, on the night of the next full moon."

Patiently I waited for the moon to grow, wondering, supposing that the moon
must be connected with the question, because we were said to have come by the
way of the moon like a flock of birds who migrated north or south according to
their nature. At last the day came and I went to the old man. He was ready.
Turning from the room he took me to a small cave near the foot of the Diamond
Mountain. The light of the diamond seemed to illuminate the sky as we paused at
the entrance. We went in by the short passage in front,
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and here, where I had
never been before, soft footfalls of invisible beings seemed to echo as if they
were retreating before us, and half-heard whispers floated by us out into the
night. But I had no fear. Those footfalls, though strange, had no malice, and
such faint and melodious whispering aroused no alarm. He went to the side of the
cave so that we looked at the other side. The passage had a sharp turn near the
inner entrance, and no light fell around us. Thus we waited in silence for some
time.

"Look quietly toward the opposite wall," said the old man, "and waver not in
thought."

Fixing an unstrained gaze in the direction of the other side, it soon seemed
to quiver, then an even vibration began across it until it looked like a
tumbling mass of clouds. This soon settled into a grey flat surface like a
painter's canvas, that was still as the clear sky and seemingly transparent. It
gave us light and made no reflection.

"Think of your question, of your doubts, and of the young students who have
raised them; think not of Abad, for he is but a name," whispered my guide.

Then, as I revolved the question, a cloud arose on the surface before me; it
moved, it grew into shapes that were dim at first. They soon became those of
human beings. They were the living pictures of my student friends. They were
conversing, and I too was there but less plain than they. But instead of
atmosphere being around them they were surrounded with ether, and streams of
ether full of what I took to be corporeal atoms in a state of change continually
rushed from one to the other. After I had accustomed my sight to this, the old
man directed me to look at one of the students in particular. From him the
stream of ether loaded with atoms, very dark in places and red in others, did
not always run to his fellows, but seemed to be absorbed elsewhere. Then when I
had fixed this in my mind all the other students faded from the space, their
place taken by some ferocious beasts that prowled around the remaining student,
though still appearing to be a long distance from him. And then I saw that the
stream of atoms
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from him was absorbed by those dreadful beasts, at the same time
that a mask fell off, as it were, from his face, showing me his real ferocious,
murderous mind.

"He killed a man on the way, in secret. He is a murderer at heart," said my
guide. "This is the truth that Abad meant to tell. Those atoms fly from all of
us at every instant. They seek their appropriate center; that which is similar
to the character of him who evolves them. We absorb from our fellows whatever is
like unto us. It is thus that man reincarnates in the lower kingdoms. He is the
lord of nature, the key, the focus, the highest concentrator of nature's
laboratory. And the atoms he condemns to fall thus to beasts will return to him
in some future life for his detriment or his sorrow. But he, as immortal man,
cannot fall. That which falls is the lower, the personal, the atomic. He is the
brother and teacher of all below him. See that you do not hinder and delay all
nature by your failure in virtue."

Then the ugly picture faded out and a holy man, named in the air in gold
"Abad," took his place. From him the stream of atoms, full of his virtue, his
hopes, aspirations, and the impression of his knowledge and power, flowed out to
other Sages, to disciples, to the good in every land. They even fell upon the
unjust and the ferocious, and then thoughts of virtue, of peace, of harmony grew
up where those streams flowed. The picture faded, the cloudy screen vibrated and
rolled away. We were again in the lonely cave. Faint footfalls echoed round the
walls, and soft whispers as of peace and hope trembled through the air.

BRYAN KINNAVAN
Path, October, 1892

KARMA

THE child is the father of the man, and none the less true is it:

My brothers! each mans life
The outcome of his former living is;
The bygone wrongs bring forth sorrows and woes
The bygone right breeds bliss. .

"This is the doctrine of Karma."

But in what way does this bygone wrong and right affect the present life? Is
the stern nemesis ever following the weary traveler, with a calm, passionless,
remorseless step? Is there no escape from its relentless hand? Does the eternal
law of cause and effect, unmoved by sorrow and regret, ever deal out its measure
of weal and woe as the consequence of past action? The shadow of the yesterday
of sin--must it darken the life of today? Is Karma but another name for fate?
Does the child unfold the page of the already written book of life in which each
event is recorded without the possibility of escape? What is the relation of
Karma to the life of the individual? Is there nothing for man to do but to weave
the chequered warp and woof of each earthly existence with the stained and
discolored threads of past actions? Good resolves and evil tendencies sweep with
resistless tide over the nature of man and we are told:

"Whatever action he performs, whether good or bad, every thing done in a
former body must necessarily be enjoyed or suffered." Anugita, Cp. III.

There is good Karma, there is bad Karma, and as the
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wheel of life moves on,
old Karma is exhausted and again fresh Karma is accumulated.

Although at first it may appear that nothing can be more fatalistic than this
doctrine, yet a little consideration will show that in reality this is not the
case. Karma is twofold, hidden and manifest, Karma is the man that is, Karma is
his action. True that each action is a cause from which evolves the countless
ramifications of effect in time and space.

"That which ye sow ye reap." In some sphere of action the harvest will be
gathered. It is necessary that the man of action should realize this truth. It
is equally necessary that the manifestations of this law in the operations of
Karma should be clearly apprehended.

Karma, broadly speaking, may be said to be the continuance of the nature of
the act, and each act contains within itself the past and future. Every defect
which can be realized from an act must be implicit in the act itself or it could
never come into existence. Effect is but the nature of the act and cannot exist
distinct from its cause. Karma only produces the manifestation of that which
already exists; being action it has its operation in time, and Karma may
therefore be said to be the same action from another point of time. It must,
moreover, be evident that not only is there a relation between the cause and the
effect, but there must also be a relation between the cause and the individual
who experiences the effect. If it were otherwise, any man would reap the effect
of the actions of any other man. We may sometimes appear to reap the effects of
the action of others, but this is only apparent. In point of fact it is our own
action.

...None else compels
None other holds you that ye live and die.

It is therefore necessary in order to understand the nature of Karma and its
relation to the individual to consider action in all its aspects. Every act
proceeds from the mind. Beyond the mind there is no action and therefore no
Karma. The basis of every act is desire. The plane of desire or egotism is
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itself action and the matrix of every act. This plane may be considered as
non-manifest, yet having a dual manifestation in what we call cause and effect,
that is, the act and its consequences. In reality, both the act and its
consequences are the effect, the cause being on the plane of desire. Desire is
therefore the basis of action in its first manifestation on the physical plane,
and desire determines the continuation of the act in its karmic relation to the
individual. For a man to be free from the effects of the Karma of any act he
must have passed to a state no longer yielding a basis in which that act can
inhere. The ripples in the water caused by the action of the stone will extend
to the furthest limit of its expanse, but no further; they are bounded by the
shore. Their course is ended when there is no longer a basis or suitable medium
in which they can inhere; they expend their force and are not. Karma is,
therefore, as dependent upon the present personality for its fulfillment, as it
was upon the former for the first initial act. An illustration may be given
which will help to explain this.

A seed, say for instance mustard, will produce a mustard tree and nothing
else; but in order that it should be produced, it is necessary that the
co-operation of soil and culture should be equally present. Without the seed,
however much the ground may be tilled and watered, it will not bring forth the
plant, but the seed is equally in-operative without the joint action of the soil
and culture.

The first great result of Karmic action is the incarnation in physical life.
The birth-seeking entity consisting of desires and tendencies, presses forward
towards incarnation. It is governed in the selection of its scene of
manifestation by the law of economy. Whatever is the ruling tendency, that is to
say, whatever group of affinities is strongest, those affinities will lead it to
the point of manifestation at which there is the least opposition. It incarnates
in those surroundings most in harmony with its Karmic tendencies and all the
effects of actions contained in the Karma so manifesting will be experienced by
the individual. This governs the station of life, the sex, the
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conditions of the
irresponsible years of childhood, the constitution with the various diseases
inherent in it, and in fact all those determining forces of physical existence
which are ordinarily classed under the terms, "heredity," and "national
characteristics."

It is really the law of economy which is the truth underlying these terms and
which explains them. Take for instance a nation with certain special
characteristics. These are the plane of expansion for any entity whose greatest
number of affinities are in harmony with those characteristics. The incoming
entity following the law of least resistance becomes incarnated in that nation,
and all Karmic effects following such characteristics will accrue to the
individual. This will explain what is the meaning of such expressions as the
"Karma of nations," and what is true of the nation will also apply to family and
caste.

It must, however, be remembered that there are many tendencies which are not
exhausted in the act of incarnation. It may happen that the Karma which caused
an entity to incarnate in any particular surrounding, was only strong enough to
carry it into physical existence. Being exhausted in that direction, freedom is
obtained for the manifestation of other tendencies and their Karmic effects. For
instance, Karmic force may cause an entity to incarnate in a humble sphere of
life. He may be born as the child of poor parents. The Karma follows the entity,
endures for a longer or shorter time, and becomes exhausted. From that point,
the child takes a line of life totally different from his surroundings. Other
affinities engendered by former action express themselves in their Karmic
results. The lingering effect of the past Karma may still manifest itself in the
way of obstacles and obstructions which are surmounted with varying degrees of
success according to their intensity.

From the standpoint of a special creation for each entity entering the world,
there is vast and unaccountable injustice. From the standpoint of Karma, the
strange vicissitudes and
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apparent chances of life can be considered in a
different light as the unerring manifestation of cause and sequence. In a family
under the same conditions of poverty and ignorance, one child will be separated
from the others and thrown into surroundings very dissimilar. He may be adopted
by a rich man, or through some freak of fortune receive an education giving him
at once a different position. The Karma of incarnation being exhausted, other
Karma asserts itself.

A very important question is here presented: Can an individual affect his own
Karma, and if so to what degree and in what manner?

It has been said that Karma is the continuance of the act, and for any
particular line of Karma to exert itself it is necessary that there should be
the basis of the act engendering that Karma in which it can inhere and operate.
But action has many planes in which it can inhere. There is the physical plane,
the body with its senses and organs; then there is the intellectual plane,
memory, which binds the impressions of the senses into a consecutive whole and
reason puts in orderly arrangement its storehouse of facts. Beyond the plane of
intellect there is the plane of emotion, the plane of preference for one object
rather than another: the fourth principle of the man. These three, physical,
intellectual, and emotional, deal entirely with objects of sense perception and
may be called the great battlefield of Karma.1 There is also the
plane of ethics, the plane of discrimination of the "I ought to do this, I ought
not to do that." This plane harmonizes the intellect and the emotions. All these
are the planes of Karma or action: what to do, and what not to do. It is the
mind as the basis of desire that initiates action on the various planes, and it
is only through the mind that the effects of rest and action can be received.

(1) See Bhagavad-Gita where the whole poem turns upon the conflict in
this battlefield, which is called the "sacred plain of Kurukshetra,"
meaning, the "body which is acquired by Karma." (ED.)

An entity enters incarnation with Karmic energy from past existences, that is
to say the action of past lives is awaiting its development as effect. This
Karmic energy presses into mani-
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festation in harmony with the basic nature of the
act. Physical Karma will manifest in the physical tendencies bringing enjoyment
and suffering. The intellectual and the ethical planes are also in the same
manner the result of the past Karmic tendencies and the man as he is, with his
moral and intellectual faculties, is in unbroken continuity with the past.

The entity at birth has therefore a definite amount of Karmic energy. After
incarnation this awaits the period in life at which fresh Karma begins. Up to
the time of responsibility it is as we have seen the initial Karma only that
manifests. From that time the fresh personality becomes the ruler of his own
destiny. It is a great mistake to suppose that an individual is the mere puppet
of the past, the helpless victim of fate. The law of Karma is not fatalism, and
a little consideration will show that it is possible for an individual to affect
his own Karma. If a greater amount of energy be taken up on one plane than on
another this will cause the past Karma to unfold itself on that plane. For
instance, one who lives entirely on the plane of sense gratification will from
the plane beyond draw the energy required for the fulfillment of his desires.
Let us illustrate by dividing man into upper and lower nature. By directing the
mind and aspirations to the lower plane, a "fire" or centre of attraction, is
set up there, and in order to feed and fatten it, the energies of the whole
upper plane are drawn down and exhausted in supplying the need of energy which
exists below due to the indulgence of sense gratification. On the other hand,
the centre of attraction may be fixed in the upper portion, and then all the
needed energy goes there to result in increase of spirituality. It must be
remembered that Nature is all bountiful and withholds not her hand. The demand
is made, and the supply will come. But at what cost? That energy which should
have strengthened the moral nature and fulfilled the aspirations after good, is
drawn to the lower desires. By degrees the higher planes are exhausted of
vitality and the good and bad Karma of an entity will be absorbed on the
physical plane. If on the other hand the interest is detached from the plane of
sense gratification, if there is a con-
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stant effort to fix the mind on the
attainment of the highest ideal, the result will be that the past Karma will
find no basis in which to inhere on the physical plane. Karma will therefore be
manifested only in harmony with the plane of desire. The sense energy of the
physical plane will exhaust itself on a higher plane and thus become transmuted
in its effects.

What are the means through which the effects of Karma can be thus changed is
also clear. A person can have no attachment for a thing he does not think about,
therefore the first step must be to fix the thought on the highest ideal. In
this connection one remark may be made on the subject of repentance. Repentance
is a form of thought in which the mind is constantly recurring to a sin. It has
therefore to be avoided if one would set the mind free from sin and its Karmic
results. All sin has its origin in the mind. The more the mind dwells on any
course of conduct, whether with pleasure or pain, the less chance is there for
it to become detached from such action. The manas (mind) is the knot of
the heart, when that is untied from any object, in other words when the mind
loses its interest in any object, there will no longer be a link between the
Karma connected with that object and the individual.

It is the attitude of the mind which draws the Karmic cords tightly round the
soul. It imprisons the aspirations and binds them with chains of difficulty and
obstruction. It is desire that causes the past Karma to take form and shape and
build the house of clay. It must be through non-attachment that the soul will
burst through the walls of pain, it will be only through a change of mind that
the Karmic burden will be lifted.

It will appear, therefore, that although absolutely true that action brings
its own result, "there is no destruction here of actions good or not good.
Coming to one body after another they become ripened in their respective ways."
Yet this ripening is the act of the individual. Free will of man asserts itself
and he becomes his own saviour. To the worldly man Karma is a stern Nemesis, to
the spiritual man Karma unfolds
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itself in harmony with his highest aspirations.
He will look with tranquility alike on past and future, neither dwelling with
remorse on past sin nor living in expectation of reward for present action.

Path, December, 1886

APHORISMS ON KARMA

(1) There is no Karma unless there is a being to make it or feel its effects.

(2) Karma is the adjustment of effects flowing from causes, during which the
being upon whom and through whom that adjustment is effected experiences pain or
pleasure.

(3) Karma is an undeviating and unerring tendency in the Universe to restore
equilibrium, and it operates incessantly.

(4) The apparent stoppage of this restoration to equilibrium is due to the
necessary adjustment of disturbance at some other spot, place, or focus which is
visible only to the Yogi, to the Sage, or the perfect Seer: there is therefore
no stoppage, but only a hiding from view.

(5) Karma operates on all things and beings from the minutest conceivable
atom to Brahma. Proceeding in the
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three worlds men, gods, and the elemental
beings, no spot in the manifested universe is exempt from its sway.

(6) Karma is not subject to time, and therefore he who knows what is the
ultimate division of time in this Universe knows Karma.

(7) For all other men Karma is in its essential nature unknown and
unknowable.

(8) But its action may be known by calculation from cause to effect; and this
calculation is possible because the effect is wrapped up in and is not succedent
to the cause.

(9) The Karma of this earth is the combination of the acts and thoughts of
all beings of every grade which were concerned in the preceding Manvantara or
evolutionary stream from which ours flows.

(10) And as those beings include Lords of Power and Holy Men, as well as weak
and wicked ones, the period of the earth's duration is greater than that of any
entity or race upon it.

(11) Because the Karma of this earth and its races began in a past too far
back for human minds to reach, an inquiry into its beginning is useless and
profitless.

(12) Karmic causes already set in motion must be allowed to sweep on until
exhausted, but this permits no man to refuse to help his fellows and every
sentient being.

(13) The effects may be counteracted or mitigated by the thoughts and acts of
oneself or of another, and then the resulting effects represent the combination
and interaction of the whole number of causes involved in producing the effects.

(14) In the life of worlds, races, nations, and individuals, Karma cannot act
unless there is an appropriate instrument provided for its action.

(15) And until such appropriate instrument is found, that Karma related to it
remains unexpended.

(16) While a man is experiencing Karma in the instru-
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ment provided, his other
unexpended Karma is not exhausted through other beings or means, but is held
reserved for future operation; and lapse of time during which no operation of
that Karma is felt causes no deterioration in its force or change in its nature.

(17) The appropriateness of an instrument for the operation of Karma consists
in the exact connection and relation of the Karma with the body, mind,
intellectual and psychical nature acquired for use by the Ego in any life.

(18) Every instrument used by any Ego in any life is appropriate to the Karma
operating through it.

(19) Changes may occur in the instrument during one life so as to make it
appropriate for a new class of Karma, and this may take place in two ways: (a)
through intensity of thought and the power of a vow, and (b) through natural
alterations due to complete exhaustion of old causes.

(20) As body and mind and soul have each a power of independent action, any
one of these may exhaust, independently of the others, some Karmic causes more
remote from or nearer to the time of their inception than those operating
through other channels.

(21) Karma is both merciful and just. Mercy and Justice are only opposite
poles of a single whole; and Mercy without Justice is not possible in the
operations of Karma. That which man calls Mercy and Justice is defective,
errant, and impure.

(22) Karma may be of three sorts: (a) presently operative in this life
through the appropriate instruments; (b) that which is being made or stored up
to be exhausted in the future; Karma held over from past life or lives and not
operating yet because inhibited by inappropriateness of the instrument in use by
the Ego, or by the force of Karma now operating.

(23) Three fields of operation are used in each being by Karma: (a) the body
and the circumstances; (b) the mind
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and intellect; the psychic and astral
planes.

(24) Held-over Karma or present Karma may each, or both at once, operate in
all of the three fields of Karmic operation at once, or in either of those
fields a different class of Karma from that using the others may operate at the
same time.

(25) Birth into any sort of body and to obtain the fruits of any sort of
Karma is due to the preponderance of the line of Karmic tendency.

(26) The sway of Karmic tendency will influence the incarnation of an Ego, or
any family of Egos, for three lives at least, when measures of repression,
elimination, or counteraction are not adopted.

(27) Measures taken by an Ego to repress tendency, eliminate defects, and to
counteract by setting up different causes, will alter the sway of Karmic
tendency and shorten its influence in accordance with the strength or weakness
of the efforts expended in carrying out the measures adopted.

(28) No man but a sage or true seer can judge another's Karma. Hence while
each receives his deserts, appearances may deceive, and birth into Poverty or
heavy trial may not be punishment for bad Karma, for Egos continually incarnate
into poor surroundings where they experience difficulties and trials which are
for the discipline of the Ego and result in strength, fortitude, and sympathy.

(29) Race-Karma influences each unit in the race through the law of
Distribution. National Karma operates on the members of the nation by the same
law more concentrated. Family Karma governs only with a nation where families
have been kept pure and distinct; for in any nation where there is a mixture of
family - as obtains in each Kaliyuga period - family Karma is in general
distributed over a nation. But even at such periods some families remain
coherent for long periods, and then the members feel the sway of family Karma.
The word "family" may include several smaller families.
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(30) Karma operates to produce cataclysms of nature by concatenation through
the mental and astral planes of being. A cataclysm may be traced to an immediate
physical cause such as internal fire and atmospheric disturbance, but these have
been brought on by the disturbance created through the dynamic power of human
thought.

(31) Egos who have no Karmic connection with a portion of the globe where a
cataclysm is coming on are kept without the latter's operation in two ways: (a)
by repulsion acting on their inner nature, and (b) by being called and
warned by those who watch the progress of the world.

Path, March, 1893

KARMA IN THE DESATIR

THE Desatir is a collection of the writings of the different Persian
Prophets, one of whom was Zoroaster. The last was alive in the time of Khusro
Parvez, who was contemporary with the Emperor Revaclius and died only nine years
before the end of the ancient Persian monarchy. Sir William Jones was the first
who drew the attention of European scholars to the Desatir. It is
divided into books of the different prophets. In this article the selections are
from the "Prophet Abad."

"In the name of Lareng! Mezdam ((1) Mezdam is the Lord God, so to say.) separated man from the other animals by
the distinction of a soul, which is a free and independent substance, without a
body or anything material, indivisible and without position, by which he attaineth to the glory of the angels.

"By his knowledge he united the soul with the elemental body. If one doeth
good in an elemental body, and possesseth useful knowledge, and acts aright, and
is a Hirtasp, and doth not give pain to harmless animals; when he putteth off
the inferior body I will introduce him to the abode of the angels that he may
see me with the nearest angels.

"And every one who wisheth to return to the lower world and is a doer of good
shall, according to his knowledge and conversation and actions, receive
something, either as a King or Prime Minister, or some high office or wealth,
until he meeteth with a reward suited to his deeds.

"Those who, in the season of prosperity, experience pain and grief suffer
them on account of their words or deeds in a former body, for which the Most
Just now punisheth them.

"In the name of Lareng! Whosoever is an evil doer, on him He first inflicteth
pain under human form: for sickness, sufferings of children while in their
mothers womb, and after they
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are out of it, and suicide, and being hurt by
ravenous animals, and death, and being subjected to want from birth to death,
are all retributions for past actions: and in like manner as to goodness.

"If any one knowingly and intentionally kill a harmless animal and do not
meet with retribution in the same life either from the unseen or the earthly
ruler, he will find punishment awaiting him at his next coming."

Certain verses declare that foolish and evil doers are condemned to the
bodies of vegetables, and the very wicked to the form of minerals, and then
declare they so remain,

"Until their sins be purified, after which they are delivered from this
suffering and are once more united to a human body: and according as they act in
it they again meet with retribution."

In the Desatir the doctrine is held that animals are also subject to
punishment by retributive Karma; thus:

"If a ravenous animal kill a harmless animal it must be regarded as
retaliation on the slain, since ferocious animals exist for the purpose of
inflicting such punishment. The slaying of ravenous animals is laudable, since
they in a former existence have been shedders of blood and slew the guiltless.
The punisher of such is blest.

"The lion, the tiger, the leopard, the panther, and the wolf, with all
ravenous animals, whether birds, quadrupeds, or creeping things, have once
possessed authority; and everyone whom they kill hath been their aider or
abettor who did evil by supporting or assisting, or by the orders of, that
exalted class; and having given pain to harmless animals are now punished by
their own masters. In fine, these grandees, being invested with the forms of
ravenous beasts, expire of suffering and wounds according to their misdeeds; and
if any guilt remain they will return a second time and suffer punishment along
with their accomplices."

BRYAN KINNAVAN
Path, October, 1891

THE MORAL LAW OF COMPENSATION

BY AN EX-ASIATIC (W. Q. Judge, F.T.S.)

For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field; and the beasts of
the field shall be at peace with thee.--Job, Chap. V, v. 23, Christian Bible.

AS a western Theosophist, I would like to present to my Indian brethren a few
thoughts upon what I conceive to be the operation of the Law of Compensation in
part, or, to put it more clearly, upon the operation of one branch of this law.

It seems undeniable that this law is the most powerful, and the one having
the most numerous and complicated ramifications of all the laws with which we
have to deal. This it is that makes so difficult for a human spirit, the upward
progress after which we all are striving, and it is often forced upon me that it
is this law which perpetuates the world, with its delusions, its sadness, its
illusions, and that if we could but understand it so as to avoid its operation,
the nirvana for the whole human family would be an accomplished fact.

In a former number a respected brother from Ceylon, speaking with authority,
showed us how to answer the question so often asked: "Why do we see a good man
eating the bread of poverty, and the wicked dwelling in riches, and why so often
is a good man cast down from prosperity to despair, and a wicked man after a
period of sorrow and hardship made to experience for the balance of his life
nothing but success and prosperity?" He replied that our acts in any one period
of
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existence were like the arrow shot from the bow, acting upon us in the next
life and producing our rewards and punishments. So that to accept his
explanation--as we must--it is, of course, necessary to believe in
reincarnation. As far as he went, he was very satisfactory, but he did not go
into the subject as thoroughly as his great knowledge would permit. It is to be
hoped that he will favor us with further essays upon the same subject.

I have not yet seen anywhere stated the rationale of the operation
of this law--how and why it acts in any particular case.

To say that the reviling of a righteous man will condemn one to a life of a
beggar in the next existence is definite enough in statement, but it is put
forward without a reason, and unless we accept these teachings blindly we cannot
believe such consequences would follow. To appeal to our minds, there should be
a reason given, which shall be at once plain and reasonable. There must be some
law for this particular case; otherwise, the statement cannot be true. There
must occur, from the force of the revilement, the infraction of some natural
regulation, the production of some discord in the spiritual world which has for
a consequence the punishment by beggary in the succedent existence of the
reviler. The only other reason possible of statement is, that it is so ordered.
But such a reason is not a reason at all because no Theosophist will believe
that any punishment, save that which man himself inflicts, is ordered.
As this world is a world produced by law, moved by law, and governed by the
natural operation of laws which need no one to operate them, but which
invariably and unerringly operate themselves, it must follow that any punishment
suffered in this way is not suffered through any order, but is suffered because
the natural law operates itself. And further, we are compelled to accept this
view, because to believe that it was ordered, would infer the existence
of some particular person, mind, will, or intelligence to order it,
which for one instant no one will believe, who knows that this world was
produced, and is governed, by the operation of number,
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weight and measure, with
harmony over and above all.

So then we should know in what manner the law operates, which condemns the
reviler of a righteous man to beggary in his next existence. That knowledge once
gained, we may be able to find for ourselves the manner and power of placating,
as it were, this terrible monster of compensation by performing some particular
acts which shall in some way be a restoration of the harmony which we have
broken, if perchance we have unconsciously or inadvertently committed the sin.

Let us now imagine a boy born of wealthy parents, but not given proper
intelligence. He is, in fact, called an idiot. But instead of being a mild
idiot, he possesses great malice which manifests itself in his tormenting
insects and animals at every opportunity. He lives to be, say, nineteen and has
spent his years in the malicious, although idiotic, torment of unintelligent,
defenseless animal life. He has thus hindered many a spirit in its upward march
and has beyond doubt inflicted pain and caused a moral discord. This fact of his
idiocy is not a restoration of the discord. Every animal that he tortured had
its own particular elemental spirit, and so had every flower that he broke in
pieces. What did they know of his idiocy, and what did they feel after the
torture but revenge? And had they a knowledge of his idiocy, being unreasoning
beings, they could not see in it any excuse for his acts. He dies at nineteen,
and after the lapse of years is reborn in another nation-- perchance another
age--into a body possessing more than average intelligence. He is no longer an
idiot, but a sensible active man who now has a chance to regenerate the spirit
given to every man, without the chains of idiocy about it. What is to be the
result of the evil deeds of his previous existence? Are they to go unpunished? I
think not. But how are they to be punished; and if the compensation comes, in
what manner does the law operate upon him? To me there seems to be but one way,
that is through the discord produced in the spirits of those unthinking beings
which he had tortured during those nineteen years. But how? In this way. In the
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agony of their torture these beings turned their eyes upon their torturer, and
dying, his spiritual picture through the excess of their pain, together with
that pain and the desire for revenge, were photographed, so to speak, upon their
spirits-- for in no other way could they have a memory of him--and when he
became a disembodied spirit they clung to him until he was reincarnated when
they were still with him like barnacles on a ship. They can now only see through
his eyes, and their revenge consists in precipitating themselves down his glance
on any matter he may engage in, thus attaching themselves to it for the purpose
of dragging it down to disaster.

This leads to the query of what is meant by these elementals precipitating
themselves down his glance. The ancients taught that the astral light--Akasa--is
projected from the eyes, the thumbs and the palms of the hands. Now as the
elementals exist in the astral light, they will be able to see only through
those avenues of human organism which are used by the astral light in traveling
from the person. The eyes are the most convenient. So when this person directs
his glance on any thing or person, the astral light goes out in that glance and
through it those elementals see that which he looks upon. And so also, if he
should magnetize a person, the elementals will project themselves from his hands
and eyes upon the subject magnetized and do it injury.

Well then, our reincarnated idiot engages in a business which requires his
constant surveillance. The elementals go with him and throwing themselves upon
everything he directs, cause him continued disaster.

But one by one they are caught up again out of the orbit of necessity into
the orbit of probation in this world, and at last all are gone, whereupon he
finds success in all he does and has his chance again to reap eternal life. He
finds the realization of the words of Job quoted at the head of this article: he
is in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field are at
peace with him." These words were penned ages ago by those ancient Egyptians who
knew all things. Having
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walked in the secret paths of wisdom which no fowl knoweth and the vulture's eye hath not seen, they discovered those hidden laws,
one within the other like the wheels of Ezekiel, which govern the universe.
There is no other reasonable explanation of the passage quoted than the theory
faintly outlined in the foregoing poor illustration. And I only offer it as a
possible solution or answer to the question as to what is the rationale
of the operation of the Moral Law of Compensation in that particular case, of
which I go so far as to say that I think I know a living illustration. But it
will not furnish an answer for the case of the punishment for reviling a
righteous man.

I would earnestly ask the learned friends of the Editor of THE
THEOSOPHISTto give the explanation, and also hint
to us how in this existence we may act so as to mitigate the horrors of our
punishment and come as near as may be to a league with the stones and the beasts
of the field.

Theosophist, October, 1881

THOUGHTS ON KARMA

EVERY day in life we see people overtaken by circumstances either good or bad
and coming in blocks all at once or scattered over long periods of time. Some
are for a whole life in a miserable condition, and others for many years the
very reverse; while still others are miserable or happy by snatches. I speak, of
course, of the circumstances of life irrespective of the effect on the mind of
the person, for it may often be that a man is not unhappy under adverse
circumstances, and some are able to extract good from the very strait lines they
are put within. Now all this is the Karma of those who are the experiencers, and
therefore we ask ourselves if Karma may fall in a lump or may be strung out over
a long space of years. And the question is also asked if the circumstances of
this life are the sum total result of the life which has immediately preceded
it.

There is a little story told to a German mystic in this century by an old
man, another mystic, when asked the meaning of the verse in the Bible which says
that the sins of the father will be visited on the children to the third and
fourth generation. He said: "There was once an Eastern king who had one son, and
this son committed a deed the penalty of which was that he should be killed by a
great stone thrown upon him. But as it was seen that this would not repair the
wrong nor give to the offender the chance to become a better man, the
counsellors of the king advised that the stone should be broken into small
pieces, and those be thrown at the son, and at his children and grandchildren as
they were able to
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bear it. It was so done, and all were in some sense sufferers
yet none were destroyed." It was argued, of course, in this case that the
children and grandchildren could not have been born in the family of the prince
if they had not had some hand in the past, in other lives, in the formation of
his character, and for that reason they should share to some extent in his
punishment. In no other way than this can the Christian verses be understood if
we are to attribute justice to the God of the Christians.

Each Ego is attracted to the body in which he will meet his just deserts, but
also for another reason. That is, that not only is the body to give opportunity
for his just reward or punishment, but also for that he in the past was
connected with the family in which the body was born, and the stream of heredity
to which it belongs is his too. It is therefore a question not alone of desert
and similarity, but one of responsibility. Justice orders that the Ego shall
suffer or enjoy irrespective of what family he comes to; similarity decrees that
he shall come to the family in which there is some characteristic similar to one
or many of his and thus having a drawing power; but responsibility, which is
compounded of justice, directs that the Ego shall come to the race or the nation
or the family to which its responsibility lies for the part taken by it in other
lives in forming of the general character, or affecting that physical stream of
heredity that has so much influence on those who are involved in it. Therefore
it is just that even the grandchildren shall suffer if they in the past have had
a hand in moulding the family or even in bringing about a social order that is
detrimental to those who fall into it through incarnation. I use the word
responsibility to indicate something composed of similarity and justice. It may
be described by other words probably quite as well, and in the present state of
the English language very likely will be. An Ego may have no direct
responsibility for a family, national, or race condition, and yet be drawn into
incarnation there. In such an event it is similarity of character which causes
the place of rebirth, for the being coming to the abode of mortals
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is drawn like
electricity along the path of least resistance and of greatest conductibility.
But where the reincarnating Ego is directly responsible for family or race
conditions, it will decide itself, upon exact principles of justice and in order
to meet its obligations, to be reborn where it shall receive, as grandchild if
you will, physically or otherwise the results of its former acts. This decision
is made at the emergence from Devachan. It is thus entirely just, no matter
whether the new physical brain is able or not to pick up the lost threads of
memory.

So to-day, in our civilization, we are all under the penalty of our
forefathers sins, living in bodies which medical science has shown are sown with
diseases of brain and flesh and blood coming in the turbid stream of heredity
through the centuries. These disturbances were brought about by ourselves in
other centuries, in ignorance, perhaps, of consequences so far-reaching, but
that ignorance lessens only the higher moral responsibility and tends to confine
the results to physical suffering. This can very well lead, as it often does, to
efforts on the part of many reincarnating Egos in the direction of general
reform.

It was through a belief in this that the ancients attempted to form and keep
up in India a pure family stream such as the highest caste of Brahmin. For they
knew that if such a clean family line could be kept existing for many centuries,
it would develop the power of repelling Egos on the way to rebirth if they were
not in character up to the standard of that stream of life. Thus only teachers
by nature, of high moral and spiritual elevation, would come upon the scene to
act as regenerators and saviors for all other classes. But under the iron rule
of cyclic law this degenerated in time, leaving now only an imitation of the
real thing.

A variation of the Eastern story told above is that the advice of the kings
counsellors was that the broken stone should be cast at the prince. This was
done, and the result was that he was not killed but suffered while the pieces
were being thrown. It gives another Karmic law, that is, that a given amount of
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force of a Karmic character may be thrown at one or fall upon one at once, in
bulk, so to say, or may be divided up into smaller pieces, the sum of which
represents the whole mass of Karmic force. And so we see it in life. Men suffer
through many years an amount of adverse Karma which, if it were to fall all at
once, would crush them. Others for a long time have general good fortune that
might unseat the reason if experienced in one day; and the latter happens also,
for we know of those who have been destroyed by the sudden coming of what is
called great good fortune.

This law is seen also in physics. A piece of glass may be broken at once by a
single blow, or the same amount of force put into a number of taps continuously
repeated will accomplish the same result and mash the glass. And with the
emotions we observe the same law followed by even the most ignorant, for we do
not tell bad news at once to the person who is the sufferer, but get at it
slowly by degrees; and often when disaster is suddenly heard of, the person who
hears it is prostrated. In both cases the sorrow caused is the same, but the
method of imparting the news differs. Indeed, in whatever direction we look,
this law is observed to work. It is universal, and it ought to be applied to
Karma as well as to anything else.

Whether the life we are now living is the net result of the one just
preceding is answered by Patanjali in his 8th and 9th aphorisms, Book IV.

"From these works there results, in every incarnation, a manifestation of
only those mental deposits which can come to fructification in the environment
provided. Although the manifestation of mental deposits may be intercepted by
unsuitable environments, differing as to class, place, and time, there is an
immediate relation between them, because the memory and the train of
self-reproductive thought are identical," and also by other doctrines of the
ancients. When a body is taken up, only that sort of Karma which can operate
through it will make itself felt. This is what Patanjali means. The
"environment" is the body, with the mind, the plastic
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nature, and the emotions
and desires. Hence one may have been great or the reverse in the preceding life,
and now have only the environment which will serve for the exhaustion of some
Karma left over from lives many incarnations distant. This unexhausted Karma is
known as stored-up Karma. It may or may not come into operation now, and it can
also be brought out into view by violent effort of the mind leading to such
changes as to alter the bodily apparatus and make it equivalent to a new body.
But as the majority of men are lazy of mind and nature, they suffer themselves
to run with the great family or national stream, and so through one life make no
changes of this inner nature. Karma in their cases operates through what Patanjali calls "mental deposits." These are the net results stored from each
life by Manas. For as body dies, taking brain with it, there can be no
storage there nor means of connecting with the next earth-life; the division
known as Kama is dissipated or purged away together with astral body at
some time before rebirth; astral body retains nothing--as a general rule for the
new life, and the value or summation of those skandhas which belong to Kama
is concentrated and deposited in Manas or the mind. So, when the
immortal being returns, he is really Manas-Buddhi-Atma seeking a new
environment which is found in a new body, prana, Kama, and astral
double. Hence, and because under the sway of cyclic law, the reincarnation can
only furnish an engine of a horsepower, so to say, which is very much lower than
the potential energies stored in Manas, and thus there remain
unexhausted "mental deposits," or unexhausted Karma. The Ego may therefore be
expending a certain line of Karma, always bringing it to similar environments
until that class of Karma shall be so exhausted or weakened as to permit another
set of "mental deposits" to preponderate, whereupon the next incarnation will be
in a different environment which shall give opportunity for the new set of
deposits to bring about new or different Karma.

The object that is indicated for life by all this is, to so live and think
during each life as to generate no new Karma, or
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cause for bondage, while one is
working off the stock in hand, in order that on closing each life-account one
shall have wiped off so much as that permits. The old "mental deposits" will
thus gradually move up into action and exhaustion from life to life, at last
leaving the man in a condition where he can master all and step into true
consciousness, prepared to renounce final reward in order that he may remain
with humanity, making no new Karma himself and helping others along the steep
road to perfection.

EUSEBIO URBAN Path, August, 1892

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES IN LIFE

That view of one's Karma which leads to a bewailing of the unkind fate which
has kept advantages in life away from us, is a mistaken estimate of what is good
and what is not good for the soul. It is quite true that we may often find
persons surrounded with great advantages but who make no corresponding use of
them or pay but little regard to them. But this very fact in itself goes to show
that the so-called advantageous position in life is really not good nor
fortunate in the true and inner meaning of those words. The fortunate one has
money and teachers, ability, and means to travel and fill the surroundings with
works of art, with music and with ease. But these are like the tropical airs
that enervate the body; these enervate the character instead of building it up.
They do not in themselves tend to the acquirement of any virtue whatever but
rather to the opposite by reason of the constant steeping of the senses in the
subtle essences of the sensuous world. They are like sweet things which, being
swallowed in quantities, turn to acids in the inside of the body. Thus they can
be seen to be the opposite of good Karma.

What then is good Karma and what bad? The all embracing and sufficient answer
is this:

Good Karma is that kind which the Ego desires and requires; bad, that which
the Ego neither desires nor requires.

And in this the Ego, being guided and controlled by law, by justice, by the
necessities of upward evolution, and not by
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fancy or selfishness or revenge or
ambition, is sure to choose the earthly habitation that is most likely, out of
all possible of selection, to give a Karma for the real advantage in the end. In
this light then, even the lazy, indifferent life of one born rich as well as
that of one born low and wicked is right.

When we, from this plane, inquire into the matter, we see that the
"advantages" which one would seek were he looking for the strengthening of
character, the unloosing of soul force and energy, would be called by the
selfish and personal world "disadvantages." Struggle is needed for the gaining
of strength; buffeting adverse eras is for the gaining of depth; meagre
opportunities may be used for acquiring fortitude; poverty should breed
generosity.

The middle ground in all this, and not the extreme, is what we speak of. To
be born with the disadvantage of drunken, diseased parents, in the criminal
portion of the community, is a punishment which constitutes a wait on the road
of evolution. It is a necessity generally because the Ego has drawn about itself
in a former life some tendencies which cannot be eliminated in any other way.
But we should not forget that sometimes, often in the grand total, a pure,
powerful Ego incarnates in just such awful surroundings, remaining good and pure
all the time, and staying there for the purpose of uplifting and helping others.

But to be born in extreme poverty is not a disadvantage. Jesus said well
when, repeating what many a sage had said before, he described the difficulty
experienced by the rich man in entering heaven. If we look at life from the
narrow point of view of those who say there is but one earth and after it either
eternal heaven or hell, then poverty will be regarded as a great disadvantage
and something to be avoided. But seeing that we have many lives to live, and
that they will give us all needed opportunity for building up character, we must
admit that poverty is not, in itself, necessarily bad Karma. Poverty has no
natural tendency to engender selfishness, but wealth requires it.
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A sojourn for everyone in a body born to all the pains, deprivations and
miseries of modern poverty, is good and just. Inasmuch as the present state of
civilization with all its horrors of poverty, of crime, of disease, of wrong
relations almost everywhere, has grown out of the past, in which we were
workers, it is just that we should experience it all at some point in our
career. If some person who now pays no heed to the misery of men and women
should next life be plunged into one of the slums of our cities for rebirth, it
would imprint on the soul the misery of such a situation. This would lead later
on to compassion and care for others. For, unless we experience the effects of a
state of life we cannot understand or appreciate it from a mere description. The
personal part involved in this may not like it as a future prospect, but if the
Ego decides that the next personality shall be there then all will be an
advantage and not a disadvantage.

If we look at the field of operation in us of the so-called advantages of
opportunity, money, travel and teachers we see at once that it all has to do
with the brain and nothing else. Languages, archæology, music, satiating sight
with beauty, eating the finest food, wearing the best clothes, traveling to many
places and thus infinitely varying impressions on ear and eye; all these begin
and end in the brain and not in the soul or character. As the brain is a portion
of the unstable, fleeting body the whole phantasmagoria disappears from view and
use when the note of death sends its awful vibration through the physical form
and drives out the inhabitant. The wonderful central master-ganglion
disintegrates, and nothing at all is left but some faint aromas here and there
depending on the actual love within for any one pursuit or image or sensation.
Nothing left of it all but a few tendencies-- skandhas , not of the very best.
The advantages then turn out in the end to be disadvantages altogether. But
imagine the same brain and body not in places of ease, struggling for a good
part of life, doing their duty and not in a position to please the senses: this
experience will burn in, stamp upon, carve into the character, more energy, more
power and more fortitude. It is thus through the ages that great characters are
made. The other mode is the mode of the humdrum average which is nothing after
all, as yet, but an animal.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
Path , July, 1895

IS HEREDITY A PUZZLE?

A WELL known writer in Harpers Magazine said lately "Heredity is a
Puzzle." He then proceeded, "The race is linked together in a curious tangle, so
that it is almost impossible to fix the responsibility. . . . We try to study
this problem in our asylums and prisons, and we get a great many interesting
facts, but they are too conflicting to guide legislation. The difficulty is to
relieve a person of responsibility for the sins of his ancestors, without
relieving him of responsibility for his own sins."

This is the general view. Heredity is a puzzle, and will always remain one so
long as the laws of Karma and Reincarnation are not admitted and taken into
account in all these investigations. Nearly all of these writers
admit--excepting those who say they do not know--the theological view that each
human being is a new creation, a new soul projected into life on this earth.

This is quite logical, inasmuch as they assert that we are only mortal and
are not spirits. The religious investigators admit we are spirits, but go no
further, except to assume the same special creation. Hence, when they come to
the question of "Heredity," it is a very serious matter. It becomes a puzzle,
especially to those who investigate heredity and who are trying to decide on
whom responsibility ought to rest, while they know nothing of Karma or
Reincarnation. And it is hinted at that there is necessity for legislation on
the subject. That is to say, if we have a case of a murderer to consider,
p.143
and we
find that he has come of a race or family of murderers, the result of which is
to make him a being who cannot prevent himself from committing murder, we have
to conclude that, if this is due to "heredity," he cannot in any sane sense be
responsible. Take the case of the tribes, or family, or sect of Thugs in India,
whose aim in life was to put people out of the world. Their children would of
necessity inherit this tendency. It is something like a cat and a bird. It is
the nature of the cat to eat the bird, and you cannot blame it. Thus we should
be driven to pass a law making an exception in the case of such unfortunate
persons. Then we should be met by the possibility of false testimony being
adduced upon the trial of the criminal, going to show that he came under the
law. This possibility is so great that it is not likely such a law will ever be
passed. So that, even if the legal and scientific world were able to come to any
conclusion establishing the great force of heredity, it would be barren of
results unless the truth of Karma and Reincarnation were admitted. For in the
absence of these, no law, and hence no remedy for the supposed injustice to be
done to irresponsible criminals, could be applied. I am stating, not what I
think ought to be done, but what will be the inevitable end of investigation
into heredity without the aid of the other two great laws.

If these two doctrines should be accepted by the supposed legislators, it
would follow that no such law as I have adverted to would ever be put on the
books; for the reason that, once Karma and Reincarnation are admitted, the
responsibility of each individual is made greater than before. Not only is he
responsible even under his hereditary tendency, but in a wider sense he is also
responsible for the great injury he does the State through the future effect of
his life--that effect acting on those who are born as his descendants.

There is
no very great puzzle in "Heredity" as a law, from the standpoint of Karma and
Reincarnation, although of course the details of the working of it will be
complicated and numerous.
p.144
I know that some theosophists have declared that it puzzles them, but that is
because it is a new idea, very different from those instilled into us during our
education as youths and our association with our fellows as adults.

None of the observed and admitted facts in respect to heredity should be
ignored, nor need they be left out of sight by a Theosophist. We are bound to
admit that leanings and peculiarities are transmitted from father to son, and to
all along down the line of descent. In one case we may find a mental trait, in
another a physical peculiarity; and in a great-grandson we shall see often the
bodily habits of his remote ancestor reproduced.

The question is then asked, "How am I to be held responsible for such strange
inclinations when I never knew this man from whom I inherit them?" As theories
go at this day, it would be impossible to answer this question. For if I have
come from the bosom of God as a new soul; or if what is called soul or
intelligence is the product of this body I inhabit and which I had no hand in
producing; or if I have come from far distant spheres unconnected with this
earth, to take up this body with whose generation I was not concerned; it would
be the grossest injustice for me to be held responsible for what it may do. It
seems to me that from the premises laid down there can be no escape from this
conclusion, and unless our sociologists and political economists and legislators
admit the doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation, they will have to pass laws to
which I have referred. We shall then have a code which may be called, "Of
limitations of responsibility of criminals in cases of murder and other crimes."

But the whole difficulty arises from the inherited transmitted habit
in the Western mind of looking at effects and mistaking them for causes, and of
considering the instruments or means, through and by means of which laws of
nature work, as causes. Heredity has been looked at, or is beginning to be, as
the cause of crime and of virtue. It is not a cause, but only the means or
instrument for the production of the effect, the cause
p.145
being hidden deeper. It
seems just as erroneous to call heredity a cause of either good or bad acts as
it is to call the merely mortal brain or body the cause of mind or soul.

Ages ago the Hindu sages admitted that the body did not produce the mind, but
that there was what they called "the mind of the mind," or, as we might put it,
"the intelligence operating above and behind the mere brain matter." And they
enforced their argument by numerous illustrations; as, for instance, that the
eye could not see even when in itself a perfect instrument, unless the mind
behind it was acting. We can easily prove this from cases of sleep walkers. They
walk with their eyes wide open, so that the retina must, as usual, receive the
impinging images, yet although you stand before their eyes they do not see you.
It is because the intelligence is disjoined from the otherwise perfect optical
instrument. Hence we admit that the body is not the cause of mind; the eyes are
not the cause of sight; but that the body and the eye are instruments by means
of which the cause operates.

Karma and Reincarnation include the premise that the man is a
spiritual entity who is using the body for some purpose.

From remote times the sages state that he (this spiritual being) is using the
body which he has acquired by Karma. Hence the responsibility cannot be placed
upon the body, nor primarily upon those who brought forth the body, but upon the
man himself. This works perfect justice, for, while the man in any one
body is suffering his just deserts, the other men (or souls) who produced such
bodies are also compelled to make compensation in other bodies.

As the compensation is not made at any human and imperfect tribunal, but to
nature itself, which includes every part of it, it consists in the restoration
of the harmony or equilibrium which has been disturbed.

The necessity for recognizing the law from the standpoint of ethics arises
from the fact that, until we are aware that such is the law, we will never begin
to perform such acts and think such thoughts as will tend to bring about the
required altera-
p.146
tions in the astral light needed to start a new order of thoughts
and influences. These new influences will not, of course, come to have full
effect and sway on those who initiate them, but will operate on their
descendants, and will also prepare a new future age in which those very persons
who set up the new current shall participate. Hence it is not in any sense a
barren, unrewarded thing, for we ourselves come back again in some other age to
reap the fruit of the seed we had sown. The impulse must be set up, and we must
be willing to wait for the result. The potters wheel continues to revolve when
the potter has withdrawn his foot, and so the present revolving wheel will turn
for a while until the impulse is spent.

Path, November, 1888

"MEN KARMIC AGENTS" Theosophical Siftings,vol. 4, Nos. 14-15.

THE above is the title of an essay in the T.P.S. series by Alexander
Fullerton, in which he treats the question solely in regard to whether we should
take punitive or reformatory measures with those of our fellow-beings who
transgress in those respects in which we so often see culpability. In that essay
he has said a great deal that cannot be controverted from the general rules
prevailing, but there are other considerations, and also other ways of
understanding the term "Karmic Agent."

For this H.P.B. had a particular and technical meaning under which the Karmic
Agent is at once removed from the ordinary general mass to which the essay in
the Siftings has reference. A statement of the law of Karma of course
makes not only men karmic agents but also every other being in the Cosmos,
inasmuch as they are all under the law of action and reaction, and, with the
same law, go to make Cosmos what it is. Taken as a unit in the general mass of
men, each man is a Karmic agent in the above sense, just as each horse and dog,
or the rain and the sun are. So in our daily actions, even the smallest, whether
we are conscious or not of the effect, we are such agents. A single word of ours
may have an influence for a lifetime upon another. It may cause once more the
fire of passion to blaze up, or bring about a great change for good. We may be
the means of another's being late for an appointment and thus save him from
calamity or the reverse, and so on infinitely. But all this is very different
from the technical sense I have referred to, and which might
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be taken to be the
sense of the title of the article thus specially removed from the general class.

The special sense is in this: a "Karmic Agent" is one who concentrates more
rapidly than is usual the lines of influence that bring about events sometimes
in a strange and subtle way. Of these there are two classes; the first, those
among the mass who, from the lives they have led in the past, arrive in this one
gifted--or cursed with the power unknown to themselves. The second, those who by
training have the power, or rather have become concentrators of the forces, and
know it to be the case. Of these are the Adepts, both great and small. An
instance of this may be found in the life of Zanoni as related by Bulwer Lytton.
It was observed that those who met Zanoni soon showed in their affairs very
great changes, and although Lytton's son has said, out of his imagination, I
think, that his father never intended what theosophists say he did by the book,
there is no doubt that Bulwer meant to teach and illustrate the law.

In Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms it is also spoken of in the 36th
Aphorism, second book, thus (Amer. Ed.): "When veracity is complete the Yogee
becomes the focus for the Karma resulting from all works, good and bad"; and in
the Bombay edition, "when veracity is complete he is the receptacle of the fruit
of works."

It is a well-known tradition in India, called by the civilized West a
superstition, that if one should meet and talk with an Adept his Karma good and
bad would come to a head more quickly than usual, and thus that the Adept could
confer a boon, letting the evil pass and increasing the good. I have conversed
with those who asserted they had by chance met Yogis in the forest with whom
they talked, telling them that some dear friend was sick unto death, and then on
returning home found that the sickness had all gone at the very time of the
conversation. And others met such men, who told them that the meeting would
bring on the opposite by reason of quick concentration, but that even that would
be a benefit, as it would, as it were, eat up much unpleasant Karma once
p.149
for
all. Of this class of traditions is the story of the centurion's daughter and
Jesus of Nazareth.

And H.P.B. held that there are many people in the world, engaged in its
affairs, who are, without knowing it, Karmic agents in this special sense, and
continually bring to others good and bad sudden effects which otherwise would
have come slowly to pass, spread over many more days or years, and showing in a
number of small events instead of in one.

If this theory be true, we have here also the explanation of the superstition
of the evil eye, which is only a corrupt form of the knowledge that there are
such Karmic agents among us who by looking at others draw together very quickly
effects that without the presence of the Karmic agent might never have been
noticed because of their taking more time to transpire.

But if we follow too strictly the theory that men are Karmic agents for the
punishment or reformation of others, many mistakes will be made and much bad
feeling engendered in others, making it inevitable that we who cause these
feelings must receive some day, in this life or another, the exact reaction. And
on the other hand, we should not shrink from the duty to relieve pain and sorrow
if we can, for it is both cowardice and conceit to say that we will not help
this or that man because it is his Karma to suffer. In the face of suffering it
is our good Karma to relieve it if in our power. We are ignorant at best, and
cannot tell what will be the next result of what we are about to do or to
suggest; hence it is wiser not to assume too often and on too small occasions to
be the reformers or punishers as agents for Karma of those who seem to offend.

D.K.
Path, March, 1892

IS KARMA ONLY PUNISHMENT?

THE following query has been received from H.M.H.: "In August PATHHadji Erinn, in reply to the above question, stated that 'those who have
wealth, and the happy mother seeing all her children respected and virtuous, are
favorites of Karma. I and others believe that these apparent favors are only
punishment or obstacles, and others think that the terms punishment and
reward should not be used."

I cannot agree with this view, nor with the suggestion that punishment and
reward should not be used as terms. It is easy to reduce every thing to a
primordial basis when one may say that all is the absolute. But such is only the
method of those who affirm and deny. They say there is no
evil, there is no death; all is good, all is life. In this way we are reduced to
absurdities, inasmuch as we then have no terms to designate very evident things
and conditions. As well say there is no gold and no iron,
because both are equally matter. While we continue to be human beings
we must use terms that shall express our conscious perception of ideas and
things.

It is therefore quite proper to say that an unhappy or miserably
circumstanced person is undergoing punishment, and that the wealthy or happy
person is having reward. Otherwise there is no sense in our doctrine.

The misunderstanding shown in the question is due to inaccurate thinking upon
the subject of Karma. One branch of this law deals with the vicissitudes of
life, with the differing states of men. One man has opportunity and happiness,
another meets only the opposite. Why is this? It is because each
p.151
state is the
exact result bound to come from his having disturbed or preserved the harmony of
nature. The person given wealth in this life is he who in the preceding
incarnation suffered from its absence or had been deprived of it unjustly. What
are we to call it but reward? If we say compensation, we express
exactly the same idea. And we cannot get the world to adopt verbosity in speech
so as to say, "All this is due to that man's having preserved the cosmic
harmony."

The point really in the questioners mind is, in fact, quite different from
the one expressed; he has mistaken one for the other; he is thinking of the fact
so frequently obtruded before us that the man who has the opportunity of wealth
or power oft misuses it and becomes selfish or tyrannous. But this does not
alter the conclusion that he is having his reward. Karma will take care of him;
and if he does not use the opportunity for the good of his fellows, or if he
does evil to them, he will have punishment upon coming back again to earth. It
is true enough, as Jesus said, that "it is difficult for the rich man to enter
heaven," but there are other possessions of the man besides wealth that
constitute greater obstacles to development, and they are punishments and may
coexist in the life of one man with the reward of wealth or the like. I mean the
obstruction and hindrance found in stupidity, or natural baseness, or in
physical sensual tendencies. These are more likely to keep him from progress and
ultimate salvation than all the wealth or good luck that any one person ever
enjoyed.

In such cases--and they are not a few--we see Karmic reward upon the outer
material plane in the wealth and propitious arrangement of life, and on the
inner character the punishment of being unable or unfit through many defects of
mind or nature. This picture can be reversed with equal propriety. I doubt if
the questioner has devoted his mind to analyzing the subject in this manner.

Every man, however, is endowed with conscience and the power to use his life,
whatever its form or circumstance, in the proper way, so as to extract from it
all the good for himself
p.152
and his fellows that his limitations of character will
permit. It is his duty so to do, and as he neglects or obeys, so will be his
subsequent punishment or reward.

There may also be another sort of wealth than mere gold, another sort of
power than position in politics or society. The powerful, wide, all-embracing,
rapidly-acting brain stored with knowledge is a vast possession which one man
may enjoy. He can use it properly or improperly. It may lead him to excesses, to
vileness, to the very opposite of all that is good. It is his reward for a long
past life of stupidity followed by others of noble deeds and thoughts. What will
the questioner do with this? The possessor thus given a reward may misuse it so
as to turn it, next time he is born, into a source of punishment. We are thus
continually fitting our arrows to the bow, drawing them back hard to the ear,
and shooting them forth from us. When we enter the field of earth-life again,
they will surely strike us or our enemies of human shape or the circumstances
which otherwise would hurt us. It is not the arrow or the bow that counts, but
the motive and the thought with which the missile is shot.

HADJI ERINN
Path, February, 1890

IS POVERTY BAD KARMA?

THE question of what is good Karma and what bad has been usually considered
by theosophists from a very worldly and selfish standpoint. The commercial
element has entered into the calculation as to the result of merit and demerit.
Eternal Justice, which is but another name for Karma, has been spoken of as
awarding this or that state of life to the reincarnating ego solely as a mere
balance of accounts in a ledger, with a payment in one case by way of reward and
a judgment for debt in another by way of punishment.

It has been often thought that if a man be rich and well circumstanced it
must follow that in his prior incarnation he was good although poor; and that if
he now be in poverty the conclusion is that, when on earth before, his life was
bad if rich. So it has come about that the sole test of good or bad Karma is one
founded entirely upon his purse. But is poverty with all its miseries bad Karma?
Does it follow, because a man is born in the lowest station in life, compelled
always to live in the humblest way, often starving and hearing his wife and
children cry out for food, that therefore he is suffering from bad Karma?

If we look at the question entirely from the plane of this one life, this
personality, then of course what is disagreeable and painful in life may be said
to be bad. But if we regard all conditions of life as experiences undergone by
the ego for the purpose of development, then even poverty ceases to be "bad
Karma." Strength comes only through trial and exercise. In poverty are some of
the greatest tests for endurance, the
p.154
best means for developing the strength of
character which alone leads to greatness. These egos, then, whom we perceive
around us encased in bodies whose environment is so harsh that endurance is
needed to sustain the struggle, are voluntarily, for all we know, going through
that difficult school so as to acquire further deep experience and with it
strength.

The old definition of what is good and what bad Karma is the best. That is:
"Good Karma is that which is pleasing to Ishwara, and bad that which is
displeasing to Ishwara." There is here but very little room for dispute as to
poverty or wealth; for the test and measure are not according to our present
evanescent human tastes and desires, but are removed to the judgment of the
immortal self--Ishwara. The self may not wish for the pleasures of wealth, but
seeing the necessity for discipline decides to assume life among mortals in that
low station where endurance, patience, and strength may be acquired by
experience. There is no other way to implant in the character the lessons of
life.

It may then be asked if all poverty and low condition are good Karma? This we
can answer, under the rule laid down, inthe negative. Some such lives,
indeed many of them, are bad Karma, displeasing to the immortal self imprisoned
in the body, because they are not by deliberate choice, but the result of causes
blindly set in motion in previous lives, sure to result in planting within the
person the seeds of wickedness that must later be uprooted with painful effort.
Under this canon, then, we would say that the masses of poor people who are not
bad in nature are enduring oftener than not good Karma, because it is in the
line of experience Ishwara has chosen, and that only those poor people who are
wicked can be said to be suffering bad Karma, because they are doing and making
that which is displeasing to the immortal self within.

WILLIAM BREHON, F.T.S.
Path,July, 1891

ENVIRONMENT

TO the Western mind the doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation contain
difficulties which while they seem imaginary to the Eastern student are
nevertheless for the Western man as real as any of the other numerous
obstructions in the path of salvation. All difficulties are more or less
imaginary, for the whole world and all its entanglements are said to be an
illusion resulting from the notion of a separate I. But while we exist here in
matter, and so long as there is a manifested universe, these illusions are real
to that man who has not risen above them to the knowledge that they are but the
masks behind which the reality is hidden.

For nearly twenty centuries the Western nations have been building up the
notion of a separate I--of meum and tuum-- and it is hard for
them to accept any system which goes against those notions.

As they progress in what is called material civilization with all its
dazzling allurements and aids to luxury, their delusion is further increased
because they appraise the value of their doctrine by the results which seem to
flow from it, until at last they push so far what they call the reign of law,
that it becomes a reign of terror. All duty to their fellows is excluded from it
in practice, although the beautiful doctrines of Jesus are preached to the
people daily by preachers who are paid to preach but not to enforce, and who
cannot insist upon the practice which should logically follow the theory because
the consequences would be a loss of position and livelihood.

So when out of such a nation rises a mind that asks for help
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to find again
the path that was lost, he is unconsciously much affected by the education not
only of himself but also of his nation through all these centuries. He has
inherited tendencies that are hard to be overcome. He battles with phantasms,
real for him but mere dreams for the student who has been brought up under other
influences.

When, therefore, he is told to rise above the body, to conquer it, to subdue
his passions, his vanity, anger and ambition, he asks, "what if borne down by
this environment, which I was involuntarily born into, I shall fail?" Then when
told that he must fight or die in the struggle, he may reply that the doctrine
of Karma is cold and cruel because it holds him responsible for the consequences
which appear to be the result of that unsought environment. It then becomes with
him a question whether to fight and die, or to swim on with the current careless
as to its conclusion but happy if perhaps it shall carry him into smooth water
whose shores are elysian.

Or perhaps he is a student of occultism whose ambition has been fired by the
prospect of adept-ship, of attaining powers over nature, or what not.

Beginning the struggle he presently finds himself beset with difficulties
which, not long after, he is convinced are solely the result of his environment.
In his heart he says that Karma has unkindly put him where he must constantly
work for a living for himself and a family: or he has a life long partner whose
attitude is such that he is sure were he away from her he could progress: until
at last he calls upon heaven to interpose and change the surroundings so opposed
to his perfecting himself.

This man has indeed erred worse than the first. He has wrongly supposed that
his environment was a thing to be hated and spurned away. Without distinctly so
saying to himself, he has nursed within the recesses of his being the idea that
he like Buddha could in this one life triumph over all the implacable forces and
powers that bar the way to Nirvana. We should remember that the Buddha does not
come every day
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but is the efflorescence of ages, who when the time is ripe
surely appears in one place and in one body, not to work for his own
advancement but for the salvation of the world.

What then of environment and what of its power over us?

Is environment Karma or is it Reincarnation? The LAW
isKarma, reincarnation is only an incident. It is one of the means which
The Law uses to bring us at last to the true light. The wheel of rebirths is
turned over and over again by us in obedience to this law, so that we may at
last come to place our entire reliance upon Karma. Nor is our environment Karma
itself, for Karma is the subtle power which works in that environment.

There is nothing but the SELF--usingthe word
as Max Müller does to designate the Supreme Soul and its environment. The Aryans
for the latter use the word Kosams or sheaths. So that there is only
this Self and the various sheaths by which it is clothed, beginning with the
most intangible and coming down to the body, while outside of that and common to
all is what is commonly known as environment, whereas the word should be held to
include all that is not The Self.

How unphilosophical therefore it is to quarrel with our surroundings, and to
desire to escape them? We only escape one kind to immediately fall into another.
And even did we come into the society of the wisest devotees we would still
carry the environment of the Self in our own bodies, which will always be our
enemy so long as we do not know what it is in all its smallest details. Coming
down then to the particular person, it is plain that that part of the
environment which consists in the circumstances of life and personal
surroundings is only an incident, and that the real environment to be understood
and cared about is that in which Karma itself inheres in us.

Thus we see that it is a mistake to say as we often hear it said--"If he only
had a fair chance; if his surroundings were more favorable he would do better,"
since he really could not be in any other circumstances at that time,
for if he were it
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would not be he but some one else. It must be necessary for
him to pass through those identical trials and disadvantages to perfect the
Self; and it is only because we see but an infinitesimal part of the long series
that any apparent confusion or difficulty arises. So our strife will be, not to
escape from anything, but to realize that these Kosams, or sheaths, are
an integral portion of ourselves, which we must fully understand before we can
change the abhorred surroundings. This is done by acknowledging the unity of
spirit, by knowing that everything, good and bad alike, is the Supreme. We then
come into harmony with the Supreme Soul, with the whole universe, and no
environment is detrimental.

The very first step is to rise from considering the mere outside delusive
environment, knowing it tobe the result of pastlives, the
fruition of Karma done, and say with Uddalaka in speaking to his son:

"All this Universe has the Deity for its life. That Deity is the Truth. He is
the Universal soul. He Thou art, O Svetaketu!"*

HADJI ERINN Path, February, 1887

CYCLIC IMPRESSION AND RETURN
AND OUR EVOLUTION

LECTURE, APRIL 25, 1892, BEFORE THE CONVENTION
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

Mr. Chairman, Fellow Theosophists, Ladies and Gentlemen:
The title of what I am about to say to you is CYCLIC IMPRESSION
AND RETURN AND
OUR EVOLUTION. Now what is a
cycle? It has nothing to do with the word psychic, and I am sorry to have to say
that, because I heard some people this morning repeat the title as "psychic"
instead of "cyclic," seeming to think perhaps that that was the same thing, or
had some relation to it. The word cyclic is derived from the Greek word
Kuklos, or a ring. It has been turned in the English language into the word
cycle, by the process of saying Kykle, and then cycle. The corresponding word in
the Sanscrit is Kalpa, which has in fact a wider and a deeper meaning;
because cycle in English is a word which covers, is used for, and thus somewhat
confuses, many cycles. It is used for the small cycles, and the larger cycles,
the intermediate cycles and the great ones, whereas the word Kalpa
means and implies only one cycle of a large size, and the smaller cycles within
that are designated by other words.

What is a cycle? It is a circle, a ring. But not properly a ring
like a wedding ring, which runs into itself, but more properly like a screw
thread, which takes the form of a spiral, and thus beginning at the bottom,
turns on itself, and goes up. It is something like the great Horseshoe Curve in
the Pennsylvania Railroad. There you go around the curve at the lower end; you
go down intothe horseshoe, and as you turnthe grade rises, so
that when you arrive at the opposite side you have gotten no further than the
beginning, but you have risen just
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the distance between the two ends of the
grade.

But what do we mean by a cycle in Theosophy, in our own
investigations of nature, or man, or civilization, or our own

development, our own origin, our own destiny? We mean by cycles,
just what the Egyptians, the Hindoos and the philosophers of the Middle Ages
meant by it; that is, that there is a periodicalreturn or cycling back,
circlingback of something from some place once more. That is why it is
called cycle, inasmuch as it returns upon itself, seemingly; but inthe
Theosophical doctrine, and in the ancient doctrines,it is always a
little higher inthe sense of perfection or progress. That is to say, asthe Egyptians held, cycles prevail everywhere, things comeback
again, events return, history comes back, and so inthis century we have
the saying: "History repeats itself."

But where do Theosophists say that cyclic law prevails? We say
that it prevails everywhere. It prevails in every kingdom of nature, in the
animal kingdom, the mineral world, the human world; in history, in the sky, on
the earth.We say that not only do cycles pertain, and appertain, and
obtain in and to the earth and its inhabitants, but also in what the Hindoos
call the three kingdoms of the universe, the three worlds; that is, that below
us, ourselves, and that above.

Now, if you will turn to Buckle, a great writer of the English
school, you will find him saying in one of his standard books, a great book
often quoted, that there is no doubt cyclic law prevails in regard to nations,
that they have come back apparently the same, only slightly improved or
degraded, for there is also a downward cycle included within those that rise;
but Buckle did not discover a law. He simply once more stated what the ancients
had said over and over again. And it has always seemed to me that if Buckle and
other people of that kind would pay a little more attention to the ancients,
they would save themselves a great deal of trouble, for he obtained his law by
much delving, much painstaking labor, whereas he might have gotten the law if he
had consulted the ancients, who always taught that there were cycles, and that
there always will be cycles.

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Among the ancients they had a great many large and important
cycles. In their classification they had a Saros and a Naros, which are not
understood today by us. They are known to some extent, but what exactly they
are, we do not know. The Egyptians taught that there was a great sidereal cycle,
and that is recognized today, at last; that is the cycle of 25,000 years, the
great one caused by the fact that the sun went through the signs of the Zodiac
in that length of time. Now, I do not assume that you know nothing about
astronomy, but in order to make it clear, it will be better for me to state this
over again, just as it is. The sun goes through the signs of the Zodiac from day
to day and from year to year, but at the same time, in going through the signs
of the Zodiac, he goes back slowly, like the hands of a clock ticking off the
time. In going through that period he comes back to the same point again, and
retards himself, or goes back; that is called the precession of the equinoxes,
and it is so many seconds in such a length of time. Those seconds in the sky
turned into time show you that the sun takes 25,000 and odd years to come back
to the place from which he started out at any particular time; that is to say,
if you imagine that on the first of April, this year, the sun was in such a
degree of Aries, one of the signs of the Zodiac, he will not get back to that
sign by the precession of the equinoxes until 25,000 years have passed away.

Now, the sun is the center of our solar system and the earth
revolves around it, and as the earth revolves she turns upon her axis. The sun,
it is known now by astronomers, as it was known by the ancients (who were
ourselves in fact), revolves around a center. That is, that while we are going
around the sun, he is going around some other center, so that we describe in the
sky not a circle around the sun, but a spiral, as we move with the sun around
his enormous orbit. Now do you grasp that idea exactly? It is a very important
one, for it opens up the subject to a very large extent. There is a star
somewhere in the sky, we do not know where--some think it is Alcyone, or some
other star, some think it may be a star
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in the Pleiades, and some others think
it is a star somewhere else--but they know by deduction from the known to the
unknown, as Brother Thomas told you this morning, that the sun is attracted
himself by some unknown center, and that he turns around it in an enormous
circle, and as he turns, of course he draws the earth with him. In the course of
25,000 years in going around the signs of the Zodiac, he must take the earth
into spaces where it has never yet been, for when he reaches this point in
Aries, after 25,000 years, it is only apparently the same point, just as when I
came around the curve of the Horseshoe, I started around the first point and
went around the curve, came back to the same point, but I was higher up; I was
in another position. And so, when the sun gets back again to the point in Aries,
where he was on the first of April this year, he will not be in the exact
position in the universe of space, but he will be somewhere else, and in his
journey of 25,000 years through billions upon billions of miles, he draws the
earth into spaces where she never was before, and never will be as that earth
again. He must draw her into cosmic spaces where things are different, and thus
cause changes in the earth itself, for changes in cosmic matter in the
atmosphere, in the space where the sun draws the earth, must affect the earth
and all its inhabitants. The ancients investigated this subject, and declared
long ago this 25,000 years cycle, but it is only just lately, so to speak, that
we are beginning to say we have discovered this. We know, as Nineteenth century
astronomers, that it is a fact, or that it must be a fact, from deduction, but
they knew it was a fact because they had observed it themselves and recorded the
observations.

The Egyptians had also the cycle of the Moon, which we know, and
they had more cycles of the moon than we have, for the moon not only has her
cycle of twenty-eight days, when she changes from full to disappearance, and
then again to youth, but she also has a period of return somewhere over fourteen
years, which must itself have its effect upon the earth.

Then they said, also, that the human soul had its cycle,
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it
being 5,000 years. That is, the man died, or the king died, and his body was
turned into a mummy in the hope that when, after his five thousand years cycle
had elapsed and he came back once more to earth, he would find his mummy there?
No; but that no one else should have taken his mummied atoms and made a bad use
of them. Mummification is explained by us in another way. Their knowledge of the
law of cycles caused them to make the first mummy. They held that a human soul
returned; they also held that all atoms are alive, just as we do; that they are
sensitive points; that they have intelligence belonging to the plane on which
they are, and that the man who misuses atoms of matter, such as you have in your
bodies and your brains, must stand the consequences. Consequently, saying that
to themselves, they said, "If I die, and leave those atoms, which I have used so
well, perhaps some other man will take them and use them badly, so I will
preserve them as far as possible until I return, and then by a process destroy
the combination of atoms, absorb them into some place, or position, where they
might be put to good use." That may seem offensive to some today, but I am
merely repeating the theory. I am not saying whether I believe it or not.

The ancient Egyptians who held these theories have disappeared
and left nothing behind but the pyramids, the temples of Thebes, the Sphinxes
and all the great monuments which are slowly being discovered by us. Where have
they gone? Have they come back? Do the Copts now in Egypt represent them? I
think not, although heredity is the boasted explanation of everything. The Copts
are their descendants? They know nothing, absolutely nothing but a simple
language, and they live the life of slaves, and yet they are the descendants of
the ancient Egyptians! What has become of them? The ancient Egyptians we think
were co-laborers with the ancient Hindoos, whose cycle remains; that is to say,
whose descendants remain, holding the knowledge, in part, of their forefathers,
and we find that the Hindoos have held always the same theories as to cycles as
the Egyptians held. They divided the ages of the world. They say manifestation
begins,
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and then it lasts for a period called a Kalpa, an enormous number of
years; that Kalpa is divided into ages. The small cycle is composed of a large
number of years; one will be four thousand, another four hundred thousand,
another will be a million, and so on, making a total which we cannot grasp with
the mind but which we can write upon the paper.

Now, the idea of cycles came from the Hindoos, through the
nations who spread out from there, for it is admitted that the land of Hindustan
is the cradle of the race. The Aryan race came down into Christendom, so that we
find the Christians, the Romans, the Greeks and all people around that time
holding the same theories as to cycles; that is, that cyclic law prevails
everywhere. We find it in the ancient mystics, the Christian mystics, the middle
age mystics and the mystics of times nearer to ours.

If you will read the works of Higgins, who wrote the
Anacalypsis, you will find there laborious compilations and investigations on
the subject of the cycles. Do they obtain? Is there such a thing as a cycle
which affects human destiny?

Coming closer to our own personal life, we can see that cycles
do and must prevail, for the sun rises in the morning and goes to the center of
the sky, descends in the west; the next day he does the same thing, and
following him, you rise. You come to the highest point of your activity, and you
go to sleep. So day follows night and night follows day. Those are cycles, small
cycles, but they go to make the greater ones. You were born, at about seven
years of age you began to get discretion to some extent. A little longer and you
reach manhood, then you begin to fall, and at last you finish the great day of
your life when body dies.

In looking at nature we also find that there are summer and
winter, spring and autumn. These are cycles, and every one of them affects the
earth, with the human beings upon it.

The esoteric doctrine that Brother Mead has been talking about,
the inner doctrine of the old theosophists and the present day theosophists, to
be found in every old literature and religious book, is that cyclic law is the
supreme law governing
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our evolution; that reincarnation, which we talk so much
about, is cyclic law in operation and is supreme. For what is reincarnation but
a coming back again to life, just what the ancient Egyptians taught and which we
are finding out to be probably true, for in no other way than by this cyclic law
of reincarnation can we account for the problems of life that beset us; with
this we account for our own character, each one different from the other, and
with a force peculiar to each person.

This being the supreme law, we have to consider another one,
which is related to it and contained in the title I have adopted. That is the
law of the return of impressions. What do we mean by that? I mean, those acts
and thoughts performed by a nation--not speaking about the things that affect
nature, although it is governed by the same law--constitute an impression. That
is to say, your coming to this convention creates in your nature an impression.
Your going into the street and seeing a street brawl creates an impression. Your
having a quarrel last week and denouncing a man, or with a woman and getting
very angry, creates an impression in you, and that impression is as much subject
to cyclic law as the moon, and the stars, and the world, and is far more
important in respect to your development--your personal development or
evolution--than all these other great things, for they affect you in the mass,
whereas these little ones affect you in detail.

This Theosophical doctrine in respect to cycles, and the
evolution of the human race, I think is known to you all, for I am assuming that
you are all theosophists.

It is to be described somewhat in this way: Imagine that before
this earth came out of the gaseous condition there existed an earth somewhere in
space, let us call it the moon, for that is the exact theory. The moon was once
a large and vital body full of beings. It lived its life, went through its
cycles, and at last having lived its life, after vast ages had passed away, came
to the moment when it had to die; that is, the moment came when the beings on
that earth had to leave it, because its period had elapsed, and then began from
that
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earth the exodus. You can imagine it as a flight of birds migrating. Did
you ever see birds migrate? I have seen them migrate in a manner that perhaps
not many of you have. In Ireland, and perhaps in England, the swallows migrate
in a manner very peculiar. When I was a boy, I used to go to my uncle's place
where there was an old mass of stone ruins at the end of the garden, and by some
peculiar combination of circumstances the swallows of the whole neighboring
counties collected there. The way they gathered there was this: When the period
arrived, you could see them coming in all parts of the sky, and they would
settle down and twitter on this pile of stone all day, and fly about. When the
evening came--twilight--they raised in a body and formed an enormous circle. It
must have been over forty feet in diameter, and that circle of swallows flew
around in the sky, around this tower, around and around for an hour or two,
making a loud twittering noise, and that attracted from other places swallows
who had probably forgotten the occasion. They kept that up for several days,
until one day the period arrived when they must go, and they went away--some
were left behind, some came a little early, and some came too late. Other birds
migrate in other ways. And so these human birds migrated from the moon to this
spot where the earth began (I don't know where it is--a spot in space--) and
settled down as living beings, entities, not with bodies, but beings, in that
mass of matter, at that point in space, informed it with life, and at last
caused this earth to become a ball with beings upon it. And then cycles began to
prevail, for the impressions made upon these fathers when they lived in the
ancient--mind fails to think how ancient--civilization of the moon, came back
again when they got to this earth, and so we find the races of the earth rising
up and falling, rising again and falling, rising and falling, and at last coming
to what they are now, which is nothing to what they will be, for they go ever
higher and higher. That is the theory, broadly, and in that is included the
theory of the races, the great seven races who inhabited the earth successively,
the great seven Adams who peopled the earth;
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and at last when this earth shall
come to its time of life, its period, all the beings on it will fly away from it
to some other spot in space to evolve new worlds as elder brothers who have done
the same thing before in other spaces in nature. We are not doing this blindly.
It has been done before by others--no one knows when it began. It had nothing in
the way of a beginning, it will have no end, but there are always elder brothers
of the race, who live on. As some have written, we cannot turn back the cycles
in their course. The fire of patriotism cannot prevail against the higher
destiny which will plunge a nation into darkness. All we can do is to change it
here and there a little. The elder brothers are subject to law, but they have
confidence and hope, because that law merely means that they appear to go down,
in order to rise again at a greater height. So that we have come up through the
cyclic law from the lowest kingdoms of nature. That is, we are connected in an
enormous brotherhood, which includes not only the white people of the earth and
the black people of the earth, and the yellow people, but the animal kingdom,
the vegetable kingdom, the mineral kingdom and the unseen elemental kingdom. You
must not be so selfish as to suppose that it includes only men and women. It
includes everything, every atom in this solar system. And we come up from lower
forms, and are learning how to so mould and fashion, use and abuse, or impress
the matter that comes into our charge, into our bodies, our brains and our
psychical nature, so that that matter shall be an improvement to be used by the
younger brothers who are still below us, perhaps in the stone beneath our feet.
I do not mean by that that there is a human being in that stone. I mean that
every atom in the stone is not dead matter. There is no dead matter anywhere,
but every atom in that stone contains a life, unintelligent, formless, but
potential, and at some period in time far beyond our comprehension, all of those
atoms in that stone will have been released. The matter itself will have been
refined, and at last all in this great cycle of progress will have been brought
up the steps of the ladder, in order to let some others lower still in a
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state
we cannot understand come up to them.

That is the real theory. Is that superstition? If you believe
the newspapers that is superstition, for they will twist and turn everything you
say. Your enemies will say you said there was a man in that stone, and that you
have been a stone. You have not been a stone, but the great monad, the pilgrim
who came from other worlds has been in every stone, has been in every kingdom,
and now has reached the state of man, to show whether he is able to continue
being a man, or whether he will once more fall back, like the boy at school who
will not learn, into the lowest class.

Now then, this law of impressions I have been talking about can
be illustrated in this way: If you look at one of these electric lights--take
away all the rest, leaving one only, so as to have a better impression--you will
find the light makes an image on the retina, and when you shut your eye, this
bright filament of light made by a carbon in an incandescent lamp will be seen
by you in your eye. You can try it, and see for yourselves. If you keep your eye
closed and watch intently, you will see the image come back a certain number of
counts, it will stay a certain number of counts, it will go away in the same
length of time and come back again, always changing in some respect but always
the image of the filament, until at last the time comes when it disappears
apparently because other impressions have rubbed it out or covered it over. That
means that there is a return even in the retina of the impression of this
filament. After the first time, the color changes each time, and so it keeps
coming back at regular intervals, showing that there is a cyclic return of
impression in the retina, and as Brother Thomas said this morning, if that
applies in one place, it applies in every place. And when we look into our moral
character we find the same thing, for as we have the tides in the ocean,
explained as they say by the moon-- which in my opinion does not explain it, but
of course, being no scientist, my view is not worth much so in man we have
tides, which are called return of these impressions; that is to say, you do a
thing once, there will be a tendency to repeat
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itself; you do it twice, and it
doubles its influence, a greater tendency to do that same thing again. And so on
all through our character shows this constant return of cyclic impression. We
have these impressions from every point in space, every experience we have been
through, everything that we can possibly go through at any time, even those
things which our forefathers went through. And that is not unjust for this
reason, that our forefathers furnished the line of bodily encasement, and we
cannot enter that line of bodily encasement unless we are like unto it, and for
that reason we must have been at some point in that cycle in that same line or
family in the past, so that I must have had a hand in the past in constructing
the particular family line in which I now exist, and am myself once more taking
up the cyclic impression returning upon me.

Now this has the greatest possible bearing upon our evolution as
particular individuals, and that is the only way in which I wish to consider the
question of evolution here; not the broad question of the evolution of the
universe, but our own evolution, which means our bodily life, as Madame
Blavatsky, repeating the ancients, said to us so often, and as we found said by
so many of the same school. An opportunity will arise for you to do something;
you do not do it; you may not have it again for one hundred years. It is the
return before you of some old thing that was good, if it is a good one, along
the line of the cycles. You neglect it, as you may, and the same opportunity
will return, mind you, but it may not return for many hundred years. It may not
return until another life, but it will return under the same law.

Now take another case. I have a friend who is trying to find out
all about theosophy, and about a psychic nature, but I have discovered that he
is not paying the slightest attention to this subject of the inevitable return
upon himself of these impressions which he creates. I discovered he had periods
of depression (and this will answer for everybody), when he had a despondency
that he could not explain. I said to him, you have had the same despondency
maybe seven weeks ago,
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maybe eight weeks ago, maybe five weeks ago. He examined
his diary and his recollection, and he found that he had actual recurrences of
despondency about the same distance apart. Well, I said, that explains to me how
it is coming back. But what am I to do? Do what the old theosophists taught us;
that is, we can only have these good results by producing opposite impressions
to bad ones. So, take this occasion of despondency. What he should have done
was, that being the return of an old impression, to have compelled himself to
feel joyous, even against his will, and if he could not have done that, then to
have tried to feel the joy of others. By doing that, he would have implanted in
himself another impression, that is of joy, so that when this thing returned
once more, instead of being of the same quality and extension, it would have
been changed by the impression of joy or elation and the two things coming
together would have counteracted each other, just as two billiard balls coming
together tend to counteract each others movements. This applies to every person
who has the blues. This does not apply to me, and I think it must be due to the
fact that in some other life I have had the blues. I have other things, but the
blues never.

I have friends and acquaintances who have these desponding
spells. It is the return of old cyclic impressions, or the cyclic return of
impressions. What are you to do? Some people say, I just sit down and let it go;
that is to say, you sit there and create it once more. You cannot rub it out if
it has been coming, but when it comes start up something else, start up
cheerfulness, be good to some one, then try to relieve some other person who is
despondent, and you will have started another impression, which will return at
the same time. It does not make any difference if you wait a day or two to do
this. The next day, or a few days after will do, for when the old cyclic
impression returns, it will have dragged up the new one, because it is related
to it by association.

This has a bearing also on the question of the civilization in
which we are a point ourselves.

Who are we? Where are we going? Where have we come
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from? I told
you that the old Egyptians disappeared. If you inquire into Egyptian history,
the most interesting because the most obscure, you will find, as the writers
say, that the civilization seems to rise to the zenith at once. We do not see
when it began. The civilization was so great it must have existed an enormous
length of time to get to that height, so that we cannot trace it from its
beginning, and it disappears suddenly from the sky; there is nothing of it left
but the enormous remains which testify to these great things, for the ancient
Egyptians not only made mummies in which they displayed the art of bandaging
that we cannot better, but they had put everything to such a degree of
specialization that we must conclude they had many centuries of civilization.
There was a specialist for one eye and a specialist for the other, a specialist
for the eyebrow, and so on. In my poor and humble opinion, we are the Egyptians.

We have come back again, after our five thousand or whatever
years cycle it is, and we have dragged back with us some one called the Semitic
race, with which we are connected by some old impression that we cannot get rid
of, and so upon us is impinged that very Semitic image. We have drawn back with
us, by the inevitable law of association in cyclic return, some race, some
personages connected with us by some acts of ours in that great old civilization
now disappeared, and we cannot get rid of it; we must raise them up to some
other plane as we raise ourselves.

I think in America is the evidence that this old civilization is
coming back, for in the theosophical theory nothing is lost. If we were left to
records, buildings and the like, they would soon disappear and nothing could
ever be recovered; there never would be any progress. But each individual in the
civilization, wherever it may be, puts the record in himself, and when he comes
into the favorable circumstances described by Patanjali, an old Hindoo, when he
gets the apparatus, he will bring out the old impression. The ancients say each
act has a thought under it, and each thought makes a mental impression; and when
the apparatus is provided, there will then
p.172
arise that new condition, in rank,
place and endowment.

So we retain in ourselves the impression of all the things that
we have done, and when the time comes that we have cycled back, over and over
again, through the middle ages perhaps, into England, into Germany, into France,
we come at last to an environment such as is provided here, just the thing
physically and every other way to enable us to do well, and to enable the others
who are coming after us. I can almost see them; they are coming in a little army
from the countries of the old world to endeavor to improve this one; for here
ages ago there was a civilization also, perhaps we were in it then, perhaps
anterior to the ancient Egyptians. It disappeared from here, when we do not
know, and it left this land arid for many thousands of years until it was
discovered once more by the Europeans. The ancient world, I mean Europe, has
been poisoned, the land has been soaked with the emanations, poisoned by the
emanations of the people who have lived upon it; the air above it is
consequently poisoned by the emanations from the land; but here in America, just
the place for the new race, is an arable land which has had time over and over
again to destroy the poisons that were planted here ages and ages ago. It gives
us a new land, with vibrations in the air that stir up every particle in a man
who breathes it, and thus we find the people coming from the old world seeming
to receive through their feet the impressions of an American country. All this
bears upon our civilization and race.

We are here a new race in a new cycle, and persons who know say
that a cycle is going to end in a few years and a new one begin, and that that
ending and beginning will be accompanied by convulsions of society and of
nature. We can all almost see it coming. The events are very complete in the
sky. You remember Daniel says, "A time, half a time, and a time," and so on, and
people in the Christian system have been trying to find out the time when the
time began, and that is just the difficulty. We do not know when the time began.
And the only person who in all these many years has made a direct statement is
Madame Blavatsky, and she said, "A cycle
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is ending in a few years, you must
prepare." So that it was like the old prophets who came to the people and said,
"Prepare for a new era of things, get ready for what you have to do." That is
just what this civilization is doing. It is the highest, although the crudest,
civilization now on the earth. It is the beginning of the great civilization
that is to come, when old Europe has been destroyed: when the civilizations of
Europe are unable to do any more, then this will be the place where the new
great civilization will begin to put out a hand once more to grasp that of the
ancient East, who has sat there silently doing nothing all these years, holding
in her ancient crypts and libraries and records the philosophy which the world
wants, and it is this philosophy and this ethics that the Theosophical Society
is trying to give you. It is a philosophy you can understand and practice.

It is well enough to say to a man, Do right, but after a while,
in this superstitious era, he will say, Why should I do right, unless I feel
like it? When you are showing these laws, that he must come back in his cycle;
that he is subject to evolution; that he is a reincarnated pilgrim soul, then he
will see the reason why, and then in order to get him a secure basis, he accepts
the philosophy, and that is what the theosophical society and the theosophical
movement are trying to do. Brother George Mead said the other day, in speaking
of a subject like this, that the great end and aim is the great renunciation.
That is, that after progressing to great heights, which you can only do by
unselfishness, at last you say to yourself, "I may take the ease to which I am
entitled." For what prevails in one place must prevail in another, and in the
course of progress we must come at last to a time when we can take our ease, but
if you say to yourself, "I will not take it, but as I know this world and all
the people on it are bound to live and last for many thousand years more, and if
not helped perhaps might fail, I will not take it but I will stay here and I
will suffer, because of having greater knowledge and greater
sensitiveness"--this is the great renunciation as theosophy tells us. I know we
do not often talk this way, because
p.174
many of us think that the people will say to
us at once when we talk of the great renunciation, "I don't want it; it is too
much trouble." So generally we talk about the fine progress, and how you will at
last escape the necessity of reincarnation, and at last escape the necessity of
doing this or that and the other, but if you do your duty, you must make up your
mind when you reach the height, when you know all, when you participate in the
government of the world--not of a town, but the actual government of the world
and the people upon it--instead of sleeping away your time, you will stay to
help those who are left behind, and that is the great renunciation. That is what
is told of Buddha, and of Jesus. Doubtless the whole story about Jesus, which
cannot be proved historically to my mind, is based upon the same thing that we
call renunciation. He was crucified after two or three years work. But we say it
means that this being divine resolves he will crucify himself in the eyes of the
world, in the eyes of others, so that he can save men. Buddha did the same thing
long before Jesus is said to have been born. The story that he made the great
renunciation just means that which I have been telling you, instead of escaping
from this horrible place, as it seems to us. For this is indeed horrible, as we
look at it, surrounded by obstructions, liable to defeat at any moment, liable
to wake up in the morning after planning a great reform, and see it dashed to
the ground. Instead of escaping all that, he remained in the world and started
his doctrine, which he knew at least would be adhered to by some. But this great
doctrine of renunciation teaches that instead of working for yourself, you will
work to know everything, to do everything in your power for those who may be
left behind you, just as Madame Blavatsky says in the Voice of the Silence,
"Step out of the sunshine into the shade, to make more room for others."

Isn't that better than a heaven which is reached at the price of
the damnation of those of your relatives who will not believe a dogma? Is this
not a great philosophy and a great religion which includes the salvation and
regeneration, the
p.175
scientific upraising and perfecting of the whole human family,
and every particle in the whole universe, instead of imagining that a few
miserable beings after seventy years of life shall enter into paradise, and then
they look behind to see the torments in hell of those who would not accept a
dogma?

What are these other religions compared with that? How any man
can continue to believe such an idea as the usual one of damnation for merely
unbelief I cannot comprehend. I had rather--if I had to choose--be an idolator
of the most pronounced kind, who believed in Indra, and be left with my common
reasoning, than believe in such a doctrine as that which permits me to suppose
that my brother who does not believe a dogma is sizzling in hell while I, by
simply believing, may enjoy myself in heaven.

Theosophists, if they will learn the doctrine and try to explain
it, will reform this world. It will percolate everywhere, infiltrate into every
stratum of society and prevent the need of legislation. It will alter the
people, whereas you go on legislating and leaving this world's people as they
are, and you will have just what happened in France. Capitalists in that day, in
the day of the revolution--that is the royalists--oppressed the people. At last
the people rose up and philosophers of the day instituted the reign of reason,
and out of the reign of reason--mind you they had introduced there a beautiful
idea of mankind, that idea struck root in a soil that was not prepared--came the
practice of murdering other people by the wholesale until streams of blood ran
all over France. So you see if something is not done to raise the people what
the result will be. We have seen in Chicago the result of such acts, the
mutterings of such a storm if the theosophical philosophy--call it by any other
name you like--is not preached and understood. But if these old doctrines are
not taught to the race you will have a revolution, and instead of making
progress in a steady, normal fashion, you will come up to better things through
storm, trouble and sorrow. You will come up, of course, for even out of
revolutions and blood there comes progress, but isn't it better to have progress
without that? And
p.176
that is what the theosophical philosophy is intended for. That
is why the Mahatmas we were talking about, directing their servant
H. P. Blavatsky, as they have directed many before, came out at a time when
materialism was fighting religion and was about getting the upper hand, and once
more everything moved forward in its cyclic way and these old doctrines were
revivified under the guidance of the theosophical movement. They are doctrines
that explain all problems and in the universal scheme give man a place as a
potential god.

THE KALI YUGA

A CORRESPONDENT is confused on this subject from the statement in What is
Theosophy by Mr. Old, that we are in the midst of the Iron or Black Age.
Doubtless his sentence, which is on page 28 of the book, is misleading, because
"kali" means "black," and hence it would seem that he meant we are now in the
middle of Kali Yuga, but reading further it is seen that he refers only to the
first part of the Age. Kali Yuga is in length 432,000 years according to the old
Indian calculation, and we are now coming to the end of its first five thousand
years, that preliminary period being reckoned from the death of Krishna. In
passing, it may be justly thought that this five thousand year period is the
origin of the idea of the Hebrews that the world is about that age, just as the
Greeks in the time of Solon imagined that all things had to count from their
former great cataclysm, but which the Egyptian priests showed to Solon was
incorrect, for, as they said, "There had been many great cataclysms before
that."

In the Secret Doctrine is to be found this: "The fourth sub-race was
in Kali Yuga when destroyed." This is not amenable to objection on the ground
that we who are not that race are in Kali, for each race goes through the
various Ages for itself; hence the former races, both primary and sub-, go
through all the four periods from the Golden to the Black.

It must follow from this, and such is the oldest teaching on the subject,
that at one and the same time races may be on the earth running each for itself
through one or other of the periods. Some might be in the Golden Age and others
in the Black. At present it is admitted that the Aryans are in the Kali
p.178
Age, but
certain childlike races are not so. Within the present five thousand year period
we know that races have absolutely finished their Kali Yuga and gone out of
existence. This happened to that which ruled a part of the American continent,
and hence for them in particular their Kali Yuga must have begun earlier than
ours did. The Hottentots also disappeared during our memory. This method of
considering the subject will clear it up, leaving only to be settled for each
race the period which they are in, or the beginning and ending of it. And, as
said, for the Aryans the great Kali Yuga began five thousand (odd) years ago.

To find out when the great Kali Yuga for the major race, including all its
sub-races, began would be impossible, as there are no means, and H.P.B., the
only one for the present who had access to those who held the records, said
precise figures on those heads would not be given out. But she and also those
behind her who gave her so much information laid it down, as in accord with the
philosophy of nature given out, that a division into four was the order for
evolution in respect to the life of races, and hence that each great race,
whatever its number in the whole seven, would be compelled to go through the
four periods from the Satya to Kali, while at the same time the minor races had
the same division, only that each part would be shorter than those pertaining to
the great race as a whole. For that reason it seems plain that the figures for
the various Ages (or Yugas) are only such as relate to and govern the sub- or
minor races.

The overlapping of races as to their particular Yuga (or Age) can be easily
seen in history. When the whites came to America the Indians were in their stone
age in some places, using stone hammers, spears, knives, and arrows. Even in
cultured South America the priests used stone knives for use at the sacrifices.
We, however, had gone far beyond that. The red Indian of North America would
have remained wholly in the stone age had we not altered it to some extent while
we proceeded as instruments for his annihilation. Therefore in our own period we
have examples of two races being in differ-
p.179
ent Ages while living at the same time
on the globe.

The foregoing is the general scheme outlined in the Secret Doctrine,
where there are numerous pages showing that when a new race, whether a sub or a
major one, comes in it does so while many of the old race still exist, the one
gradually rising in development while the other falls. They shade into one
another as night does into day, until at last either night or day predominates.
This period of shading is allowed for in regard to the Ages, and in the
Brahmanical calculation we find that they add twilights and dawns, since
preceding a new Age there must be the dawn as following it will come the
twilight. The twilight of the one will be the dawn of the other.

Using the Zodiac for the purpose of considering the question of the Ages, we
find that, roughly speaking, the time taken by the sun to go round the whole
circle is 25,800 years, as shown by the retrograde movement of the equinoctial
points. This is the type for the yearly circle, which makes the four seasons and
the four seasons in their turn symbolize the four Ages. Their length will be in
proportion to the greater swing of the sun. Among the seasons the winter
corresponds to the Kali Age, for then all is turned hard and cold, just as in
the Black Age, the light of the Spiritual Sun being dimmed, the hardness and
coldness of materiality appear in the moral life. Now if the sidereal period be
divided by four, we have the figures 6450 years, or the five-thousand-year
period with the requisite twilight or dawn added. And it was taught by the
Egyptians that with every quarter of the circle of the Sun's great path there
were changes caused physically by the alteration of the poles, and spiritually
there must be changes due to the inner development of the human race as an
entirety. While the materialistic philosopher thinks the changes would be due to
the movement of the poles, the teaching from the Lodge is that the spiritual
inner changes cause the physical ones through the appropriate means; in this
case those means are in the movements of the great heavenly bodies. This is
because the whole Cosmos is on the same grand plan, with all its parts working
together, each in its own way.
p.180
For the present, students will have to be satisfied with the general
statement that we are in Kali Yuga. The characteristics of the present time show
it clearly enough, for while physical civilization is high the spiritual side of
it is low and dark, and selfishness is the prevailing order. None of us can
really pretend to know more than this, for while we have the Brahmanical
calculation and the words of the Secret Doctrine, yet that is taking
the word of another, plausible, of course, and also concordant with all other
parts of the system, but still not of our own knowledge. The beginning of this
Age and the time of its ending are dark to us; but the general theory,
sufficient for our present needs, is perfectly clear, and as good an assumption
as any of those indulged in by science certainly better than the incredible
ideas of the theologian. Of one thing we are getting more and more proof each
day, and that is of the immense period during which man has been on the earth,
and with that admitted all the great cyclic lengths given by the ancient and
modern Theosophists of weight are entitled to credence.

We can also get great comfort from the theory given out at various times,
that in Kali Yuga a small effort goes farther for results than the same when
made in a better Age. In the other Ages the rates of all things are slower than
in this; hence, evil now seems quick; but in the same way good is also much
quicker in effect and reach than in a slower time.

Path, November, 1894

ANOTHER THEOSOPHICAL PROPHECY

IN the first number of THE PATH
was inserted a prophecy made from certain books in India called
Nadigrandhams, respecting the Society.
This called forth from the N.Y. Sun, that model of journalism, a
long tirade about the superficial knowledge which it claims pervades the Society
on the subject of oriental philosophy. Unfortunately for the learned editorial
writer in that paper, he never before heard of Nadigrandhams, which are
almost as common in India as the Sun is here, nor does he appear to
know what a Nadi may be, nor a Grandham, either.
But without trying to drag the daily press of this country into the path of
oriental knowledge, we will proceed to record another prophecy or two.
The first will seem rather bold, but is placed far enough in the future to
give it some value as a test. It is this:--The Sanscrit language will one day be
again the language used by man upon this earth, first in science and in
metaphysics, and later on in common life. Even in the lifetime of the Sun's
witty writer, he will see the terms now preserved in that noblest of
languages creeping into the literature and the press of the day, cropping up in
reviews, appearing in various books and treatises, until even such men as he
will begin perhaps to feel that they all along had been ignorantly talking of
"thought" when they meant "cerebration," and of "philosophy" when they meant
"philology," and that they had been airing a superficial knowledge gained from
cyclopædias of the mere lower powers of intellect, when in fact they were
totally ig-
p.182
norant of what is really elementary knowledge. So this new language
cannot be English, not even the English acquired by the reporter of daily papers
who ascends fortuitously to the editorial rooms--but will be one which is
scientific in all that makes a language, and has been enriched by ages of study
of metaphysics and the true science.
The secondary prophecy is nearer our day, and may be interesting.--It is
based upon cyclic changes. This is a period of such a change, and we refer to
the columns of the N. Y. Sun of the time when the famous brilliant
sunsets were chronicled and discussed not long ago for the same prognostication.
No matter about dates; they are not to be given; but facts may be. This glorious
country, free as it is, will not long be calm:
Unrest is the word for this cycle. The people will rise. For what,
who can tell? The statesman who can see for what the uprising will be
might take measures to counteract. But all your measures can not turn back the
iron will of fate. And even the City of New York will not be able to point its
finger at Cincinnati and St. Louis. Let those whose ears can hear the whispers,
and the noise of the gathering clouds, of the future, take notice; let them
read, if they know how, the physiognomy of the United States, whereon the mighty
hand of nature has traced the furrows to indicate the character of the moral
storms that will pursue their course no matter what the legislation may be. But
enough. Theosophists can go on unmoved, for they know that as Krishna said to
Arjuna, these bodies are not the real man, and that "no one has ever been
non-existent nor shall any of us ever cease to exist."

Path, May, 1886

THE SIGNS OF THIS CYCLE

MEN of all nations for many years in all parts of the world have been
expecting something they know not what, but of a grave nature, to happen in the
affairs of the world. The dogmatic and literal Christians, following the vague
prophecies of Daniel, look every few years for their millennium. This has not
come, though predicted for almost every even year, and especially for such as
1000, 1500, 1600, 1700, 1800, and now for the year 2000. The red Indians also
had their ghost dances not long ago in anticipation of their Messiahs coming.

The Theosophists too, arguing with the ancients and relying somewhat on the
words of H. P. Blavatsky, have not been backward in respect to the signs of the
times.

But the Theosophical notions about the matter are based on something more
definite than a vague Jewish priests vaticinations. We believe in cycles and in
their sway over the affairs of men. The cyclic law, we think, has been enquired
into and observations recorded by the ancients during many ages; and arguing
from daily experience where cycles are seen to recur over and over again,
believing also in Reincarnation as the absolute law of life, we feel somewhat
sure of our ground.

This cycle is known as the dark one; in Sanscrit, Kali Yuga, or the black
age. It is dark because spirituality is almost obscured by materiality and pure
intellectualism. Revolving in the depths of material things and governed chiefly
by the mind apart from spirit, its characteristic gain is physical and material
progress, its distinguishing loss is in spirituality. In this sense
p.184
it is the
Kali Yuga. For the Theosophist in all ages has regarded loss of spirituality as
equivalent to the state of death or darkness; and mere material progress in
itself is not a sign of real advancement, but may have in it the elements for
its own stoppage and destruction. Preëminently this age has all these
characteristics in the Western civilizations. We have very great progress to
note in conquests of nature, in mechanical arts, in the ability to pander to
love of luxury, in immense advancements with wonderful precision and power in
the weapons made for destroying life. But side by side with these we have
wretchedness, squalor, discontent, and crime; very great wealth in the hands of
the few, and very grinding poverty overcoming the many.

As intellectualism is the ruler over this progress in material things, we
must next consider the common people, so called, who have escaped from the
chains which bound them so long. They are not exempt from the general law, and
hence, having been freed, they feel more keenly the grinding of the chains of
circumstance, and therefore the next characteristic of the cycle--among human
beings is unrest. This was pointed out in the PATH
in Vol. I, p. 58, May, 1886, in these words:

The second prophecy is nearer our day and may be interesting; it is based
upon cyclic changes. This is a period of such a change, and we refer to the
columns of the Sun (of the time when the famous brilliant sunsets
were chronicled and discussed not long ago) for the same prognostication. . .
. This glorious country, free as it is, will not long be calm; unrest is
the word for this cycle. The people will rise. For what, who can tell?
The statesman who can see for what the uprising will be might take measures to
counteract. But all your measures cannot turn back the iron wheel of fate. And
even the city of New York will not be able to point its finger at Cincinnati
and St. Louis. Let those whose ears can hear the whispers and the noise of the
gathering clouds of the future take notice; let them read, if they know how,
the physiognomy of the United States whereon the mighty hand of nature has
traced the furrows to indicate the character of the moral storms that will
pursue their course no matter what the legislation may be.

This was not long after the riots in Cincinnati, and New York was warned, as
well as other places inferentially, that
p.185
the disturbances in Ohio were not to be
by any means the end. And now in 1892, just six years after our prophecy, three
great States of the Union are in uproar, with the poor and the rich arrayed
against each other, arms in hand. Pennsylvania at the works of a great factory
almost in a civil war; New York calling her militia out to suppress disorder
among workmen and to protect the property of corporations who have not taken a
course to inspire their workers with love; and Tennessee sending military and
volunteers to do battle with some thousands of armed miners who object to
convicted lawbreakers being allowed to take the work and the wages away from the
citizen. We are not dealing with the rights or the wrongs of either side in
these struggles, but only referring to the facts. They are some of the moral
signs of our cycle, and they go to prove the prognostications of the Theosophist
about the moral, mental, and physical unrest. The earth herself has been showing
signs of disturbance, with an island blown up in one place, long inactive
volcanoes again erupting, earthquakes in unaccustomed places such as Wales and
Cornwall. All these are signs. The cycle is closing, and everywhere unrest will
prevail. As lands will disappear or be changed, so in like manner ideas will
alter among men. And, as our civilization is based on force and devoid of a true
philosophical basis, the newest race in America will more quickly than any other
show the effect of false teachings and corrupted religion.

But out of anger and disturbance will arise a new and better time; yet not
without the pain which accompanies every new birth.

Path, October, 1892

CYCLES

A PAPER READ BY WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
BEFORE
THE ARYAN T. S.,
OCTOBER 22, 1889

IN advancing these
few observations upon the doctrine of cycles, no claim to an exhaustive study of
the matter is made. This paper is merely by way of suggestion.
The subject was brought before my mind by our discussion some evenings ago,
when the question of the descent upon earth, or ascent from it, of celestial
beings or progressed souls engaged our attention. It seemed certain that such
ascent and descent were governed by cyclic laws, and therefore proceeded in
regular periods. Some sentences from the Wisdom of the Egyptians by
Synesius in matter furnished me by Bro. Chas. Johnston, now of India, read:

After Osiris,
therefore, was initiated by his father into the royal mysteries, the gods
informed him . . . that a strong tribe of envious and malignant dæmons were
present with Typhos as his patrons, to whom he was allied and by whom he was
hurled forth into light, in order that they might employ him as an instrument of
the evil which they inflict on mankind. For the calamities of nations are the
banquets of the evil dæmons.
Yet you must not think that the gods are without employment, or that their
descent to this earth is perpetual. For they descend according to orderly
periods of time, for the purpose of imparting a beneficent impulse in the
republics of mankind. But this happens when they harmonize a kingdom and send to
this earth for that purpose souls who are allied to themselves. For this
providence is divine and most ample, which frequently through one man pays
attention to and affects countless multitudes of men.
p.187
For there is indeed in the terrestrial abode the sacred tribe of heroes who
pay attention to mankind, and who are able to give them assistance even in the
smallest concerns. . . . This heroic tribe is, as it were, a colony from the
gods established here in order that this terrene abode may not be left destitute
of a better nature. But when matter excites her own proper blossoms to war
against the soul, the resistance made by these heroic tribes is small when the
gods are absent; for everything is strong only in its appropriate place and
time. . . . But when the harmony adapted in the beginning by the gods to all
terrene things becomes old, they descend again to earth that they may call the
harmony forth, energize and resuscitate it when it is as it were expiring. . . .
When, however, the whole order of mundane things, greatest and least, is
corrupted, then it is necessary that the gods should descend for the purpose of
imparting another orderly distribution of things.

And in the Bhagavad Gita it is said by Krishna:

When Righteousness
Declines, O Bharata! when Wickedness
Is strong, I rise, from age to age, and take
Visible shape, and move a man with men,
Succoring the good and thrusting the evil back,
And setting Virtue on her seat again,

And

At the approach
of Brahmas day, which ends after a thousand ages, all manifested objects come
forth from the non-developed principle. At the approach of Brahmas night they
are absorbed in the original principle. This collective mass of existing things,
thus coming forth out of the absolute again and again, is dissolved at the
approach of that night; and at the approach of a new day it emanates again
spontaneously.
In the foregoing quotations two great aspects of cyclic law are stated.
The latter has reference to the great cycle which includes all cycles of
every kind. All the minor cycles run their course within it. When it begins a
new creation is ushered in, and when it ends the great day of dissolution has
arrived. In Arnold's translation of the Bhagavad Gita the beginning of
this great cycle is beautifully called by him "this vast Dawn," and of the close he
reads:
p.188

When that deep night
doth darken, all which is
Fades back again to Him who sent it forth.

The real figures
expressing the mortal years included in this period are not given. Each
Manwantara, according to the Hindus, is divided into the four Yugas or Ages,
with a certain number of years allotted to each. Speaking on this subject in the
Key to Theosophy (page 83), H. P.
Blavatsky gives us a clue thus:
Take as a first comparison and a help towards a more correct conception,
the solar year; and as a second, the two halves of that year, producing each a
day and a night of six months duration at the North Pole. Now imagine, if you
can, instead of a solar year of 365 days, ETERNITY. Let the
sun represent the universe, and the polar days and nights of six months
each--days and nights lasting each 182 trillions and quadrillions of years
instead of 182 days each. As the sun rises every morning on our objective
horizon out of its (to us) subjective and antipodal space, so does
the Universe emerge periodically on the plane of objectivity, issuing from that
of subjectivity--the antipodes of the former. This is the "Cycle of Life." And
as the sun disappears from our horizon, so does the Universe disappear at
regular periods when the "Universal Night" sets in....
This is about the best idea we can get of it. It is impossible for the
human mind to conceive these periods. No brain can grasp 182 trillions of years,
much less if quadrillions are added. Few if any persons can mentally traverse
the full extent of even a million. But we can make an approximation to
the idea by using her suggestion of dividing the year and calling six months a
day and six months a night, and then extending each into what is equivalent to
infinity with us, since it is impossible to seize such immense periods of time.And carrying out
the correspondence suggested by her, we have at once a figure of the inclusion
of all the minor cycles, by calling each day when we rise and night when we
sleep as the beginning and ending of minor cycles. Those days and nights go to
make up our years and our life. We know each day and can calculate it, and
fairly well throw the mind forward to see a year or perhaps a life.
p.189
A quotation from Vol. I.., at 31 of Isis Unveiled will give us the
Indian figures. She says:

The Maha-Kalpa
embraces an untold number of periods far back in the antediluvian ages. Their
system comprises a Kalpa or grand period of 4,320,000,000 years which they
divide into four lesser yugas running as follows:

which make one divine
age or Maha yuga; seventy-one Maha Yugas make 306,720,000 years, to which is
added a sandhi, or twilight, equal to a Satya yuga or 1,728,000 years, to make a
manwantara of 308,448,000 years. Fourteen manwantaras make 4,318,272,000 years,
to which must be added a sandhyamsa or dawn, 1,728,000, making the Kalpa or
grand period of 4,320,000,000. As we are now (1878) only in the Kali Yuga of the
28th age of the 7th manwantara of 308,448,000 years, we have yet sufficient time
before us to wait before we reach even half of the time allotted to the world.

Further H. P.
Blavatsky clearly states that the other cycles are carried out within this
greater one, as at 34, Vol. I.

As our planet
revolves once every year around the sun and at the same time once in every 24
hours upon its own axis, thus traversing minor cycles within a larger one, so is
the work of the smaller cyclic periods accomplished and recommenced within the
Great Saros.
Leaving the region of mathematics, we find this great period represents the
extension of pigmy man into the vast proportions of the great man, whose death
at the close of the allotted period means the resolving of all things back into
the absolute. Each of the years of this Being embraces of our years so many that
we cannot comprehend them. Each day of his years brings on a minor cataclysm
among men; for at the close of each one of his days, metaphorically he sleeps.
And we, as it were, imitating this Being, fall asleep at night or after our
diurnal period of activity.
We are as minor cells in the great body of this Being, and must act
obediently to the impulses and movements of the
p.190
body in which we are enclosed and take part.

This greater man
has a period of childhood, of youth, of manhood, of old age; and as the hour
arrives for the close of each period, cataclysms take place over all the earth.
And just as our own future is concealed from our view, so the duration of the
secret cycle which shows the length of life of this Being is hidden from the
sight of mortals.
We must not, however, fall into the error of supposing that there is but
one of such great Beings. There are many, each being evolved at the beginning of
a new creation. But here we touch upon a portion of the ancient philosophy which
is fully explained only to those who are able to understand it by virtue of many
initiations.
The Sandhya and Sandhyamsa referred to in the quotation taken from Isis
Unveiled are respectively the twilight and the dawn, each being said to be
of the same length and containing the same number of years as the first or
golden age -i.e., 1,728,000. It is in strict correspondence with our
own solar day which has its twilight and dawn between day and night.
In going over the figures of the four ages, a peculiarity is noticed to
which I refer at present as merely a curiosity. It is this:

The digits of
Satya Yug 1. 7. 2. 8. added together make 18; those of Treta Yug 1. 2. 9. 6 make
18; those of Dwapara Yug 8. 6. 4 make 18; while those of Kali Yug 4. 3. 2 sum up
only 9; but if those of the grand total of 4,320,000 be added together they make
9, and that with Kali give 18 again. 18 is a number peculiar to Krishna in the
Bhagavad Gita, and the poem has 18
chapters in it. If the three 18's and one 9 found as above be added together,
the result will be 63, and 3x6 = 18, and if added make 9, and 18 added gives
nine. If we multiply the three 18's and 9 produced from the different ages, we
get 5.8. 3. 2. which, if treated as before, give 18 again. And in the
process of thus multiplying we discover a recurrence of the three eighteens and
one 9, only inverted, as: The first 18 multiplied by the second one gives 3. 2.
4, which added re-
p.191
sults in 9;--324 multiplied by the third 18 gives 5.8. 3. 2, which being added gives 18;
and the product of the multiplication of 5,832 by 9, which is the result of
adding the figures of Kali Yuga, is 5.8. 4. 1, which on being added
gives 18 again.* Now, as the last of these apparently fanciful
operations, let us add together the results gained by multiplying the figures
which were obtained during the various steps we have gone through and then
adding the results.
* Readers who carry out the computations here suggested will find the results
confusing. It appears likely that some steps originally included were omitted by
the typesetter. (Editors)

The first figures are
1x8= 8
The second 3x2x4= 24
The third 5x8x3x2= 240
The fourth 5x8x4x1= 160

These added together
give 4.3.2
which are the digits of Kali
Yuga

Now turning to
Isis Unveiled at p. 32 of Vol. 1, we find this remarkable paragraph:

Higgins justly
believed that the cycle of the Indian system, of 432,000, is the true key of the
secret cycle.
But in the following paragraph she declares it cannot be revealed. However,
we may get some clues, for we see in the figures of Kali Yuga, 432,000, and in
the great total (leaving out the Sandhis), 4,320,000. What this secret cycle is,
I, however, am not competent to say. I only desire to throw out the hints.
Having thus glanced over the doctrine of the great cycle which includes all
others, let us now devote a little consideration to the cycle referred to in the
passages from the Egyptian Wisdom first quoted.
This cycle may be called for the present purpose The Cycle of Descending
Celestial Influences. By "descending" I mean descending upon us.
Osiris here signifies most probably the good side of nature, and his
brother Typhos the evil. Both must appear together. Typhos is sometimes called
in the Egyptian books the opposer,
p.192
and later with us, is known as the Devil. This appearance of Typhos at the same
time with Osiris is paralleled in the history of the Indian Krishna who was a
white Adept, for at the same time there also reigned a powerful Black magician
named Kansa, who sought to destroy Krishna
in the same way as Typhos conspired against the life of Osiris. And Rama also,
in Hindu lore the great Adept or ruling god, was opposed by Ravana, the powerful
Black magician king.
In instructing Osiris after the initiation, the gods foresaw two questions
that might arise within him and which will also come before us. The first is the
idea that if the gods are alive and do not mingle with men to the advantage of
the latter and for the purpose of guiding them, then they must necessarily be
without any employment. Such a charge has been made against the Beings who are
said to live in the Himalayas, possessed of infinite knowledge and power. If,
say the public, they know so much, why do not they come among us; and as they do
not so come, then they must be without employment, perpetually brooding over
nothing.
The instructor answered this in advance by showing how these Beings--called
gods--governed mankind through efficient causes proceeding downward by various
degrees; the gods being perpetually concerned in their proper sphere with those
things relating to them, and which in their turn moved other causes that
produced appropriate effects upon the earth, and themselves only coming directly
into earthly relations when that became necessary at certain "orderly periods of
time," upon the complete disappearance of harmony which would soon be followed
by destruction if not restored. Then the gods themselves descend. This is after
the revolution of many smaller cycles. The same is said in Bhagavad-Gita.But frequently during the minor cycles it is necessary, as the
Egyptian Wisdom says, "to impart a beneficent impulse in the republics of
mankind." This can be done by using less power than would be dissipated were a
celestial Being to descend upon earth, and here the doctrine of the influence
p.193
among us of Nirmanakayas 1 or Gnanis is supported in the Egyptian
scheme in these words:
1. For Nirmanakayas
see "The Voice of the Silence" and its glossary.

For there is
indeed in the terrestrial abode the sacred tribe of heroes, who pay attention to
mankind, and who are able to give them assistance even in the smallest concerns.
This heroic tribe is, as it were, a colony from the gods established here
in order that this terrene abode may not be left destitute of a better nature.
These "heroes" are none other than Nirmanakayas Adepts of this or previous
Manwantaras who remain here in various states or conditions. Some are not using
bodies at all, but keep spirituality alive among men in all parts of the world;
and others are actually using bodies in the world. Who the latter are it would
of course be impossible for me to know, and if I had the information, to give it
out would be improper.
And among this "sacred tribe of heroes" must be classed other souls. They
are those who, although now inhabiting bodies and moving among men, have passed
through many occult initiations in previous lives, but are now condemned, as it
were, to the penance of living in circumstances and in bodies that hem them in,
as well as for a time make them forget the glorious past. But their influence is
always felt, even if they themselves are not aware of it. For their higher
nature being in fact more developed than that of other men, it influences other
natures at night or in hours of the day when all is favorable. The fact that
these obscured adepts are not aware now of what they really are, only
has to do with their memory of the past; it does not follow, because a man
cannot remember his initiations, that he has had none. But there are some cases
in which we can judge with a degree of certainty that such adepts were
incarnated and what they were named. Take Thomas Vaughan, Raymond Lully, Sir
Thomas More, Jacob Boehme, Paracelsus, and others like them, including also some
of the Roman Catholic saints. These souls were as witnesses to the truth,
leaving through the centuries, in their own nations, evidences for those who
followed, and suggestions
p.194
for keeping spirituality bright seed-thoughts, as it were, ready for the new
mental soil. And as well as these historical characters, there are countless
numbers of men and women now living who have passed through certain initiations
during their past lives upon earth, and who produce effects in many directions
quite unknown to themselves now. They are, in fact, old friends of "the sacred
tribe of heroes," and can therefore be more easily used for the spreading of
influences and the carrying out of effects necessary for the preservation of
spirituality in this age of darkness. We find in our present experience a
parallel to this forgetting of previous initiations. There is hardly one of us
who has not passed through circumstances in early life, all of which we have
forgotten, but which ever since sensibly affect our thoughts and life. Hence the
only point about which any question can be raised is that of reincarnation. If
we believe in that doctrine, there is no great difficulty in admitting that many
of us may have been initiated to some extent and forgotten it for the time. In
connection with this we find in the 2d volume of the Secret Doctrine,
at page 302, some suggestive words. The author says:

Now that which
the students of Occultism ought to know is that the "third eye" is indissolubly
connected with Karma.
In the case of the Atlanteans, it was precisely the Spiritual being which
sinned, the Spirit element being still the "Master" principle in man, in those
days. Thus it is in those days that the heaviest Karma of the Fifth
Race was generated by our Monads. .

Hence the
assertion that many of us are now working off the effects of the evil Karmic
causes produced by us in Atlantean bodies.

In another place
she puts the date of the last Atlantean destruction as far back as 11,000 years
ago, and describes them as a people of immense knowledge and power. If we allow
about 1,000 years for our period in Devachan, we will have only passed through
some eleven incarnations since then; and supposing that many more have been our
lot--as is my opinion, then we have to place ourselves among those wonderful
though wicked people at the height of their power. Granting that we were guilty
of the sinful practices of the days in which
p.195
we then lived, and knowing the effect of Karma, it must follow that since then
we have passed through many very disagreeable and painful lives, resembling by
analogy dreadful situations in the years between youth and maturity. No wonder,
then, if for the time we have forgotten outwardly what we then learned.
But all these historical personages to whom I have referred were living in
a dark cycle that affected Europe only. These cycles do not cover the whole of
the human race, fortunately for it, but run among the nations influenced for the
allotted period, while other peoples remain untouched. Thus while Europe was in
darkness, all India was full of men, kings and commoners alike, who possessed
the true philosophy; for a different cycle was running there.
And such is the law as formulated by the best authorities. It is held that
these cycles do not include the whole of mankind at any one time. In this paper
I do not purpose to go into figures, for that requires a very careful
examination of the deeds and works of numerous historical personages in
universal history, so as to arrive by analysis at correct periods.
It is thought by many that the present is a time when preparation is being
made by the most advanced of the "sacred tribe of heroes" for a new cycle in
which the assistance of a greater number of progressed souls from other spheres
may be gained for mankind. Indeed, in Isis Unveiled this is plainly
stated.

Writing in 1878,
Madame Blavatsky says in Vol. I of Isis:

Unless we
mistake the signs, the day is approaching when the world will receive the proofs
that only ancient religions were in harmony with nature, and ancient science
embraced all that can be known. Secrets long-kept may be revealed; books
long-forgotten and arts long-time-lost may be brought out to light again; papyri
and parchments of inestimable importance will turn up in the hands of men who
pretend to have unrolled them from mummies or stumbled upon them in buried
crypts; tablets and pillars, whose sculptured revelations will stagger
theologians and confound scientists, may yet be excavated and interpreted. Who
knows the possibilities of the future? An era of disenchantment and
rebuilding will soonp.196begin--nay, has already begun. The cycle has almost run its course; a new
one is about to begin, and the future pages of history may contain full
proof that--

If ancestry can be in
aught believed,
Descending spirits have conversed with man
And told him secrets of the world unknown.

Now the way to
get at the coming on of the period or close of a larger cycle without wandering
in the mazes of figures, is to regard the history and present state of mankind
as known.
Thus in the darker age of Europe we find India almost unknown and America
wholly so. That was a period when cycles were operating apart from each other,
for men were separated from and ignorant of each other. In these continents
there were great and powerful nations ruling in both North and South America, but they were not in communication with Europe or India.
Now, however, China knows of and communicates with England and America, and
even dark Africa has constant visitors from all civilized nations, and to some
extent is affected by us. Doubtless in the greater number of towns in Africa the
white man and his doings are more or less like fables, but we with larger
knowledge know that those fables rest upon the fact of our explorations
there.
Judging, then, from the appearances in the affairs of men, we can conclude
that now some great cycle is either ending or beginning, and that a number of
minor circles are approaching each other.
At the same time with these social or material cycles, there are
corresponding ones on a higher plane. One is quite easy to trace. It is the
influence of Eastern metaphysics upon the Western mind. This higher cycle had
been revolving for many years among the Orientals before we came within its
power. Our falling under it is due to a physical cycle as a means. That one
which is represented in the progress of trade, of science, of means for
transportation. In this way the philosophical
p.197
system of India and Tibet has begun to affect us, and no man can calculate its
course.
Taking into account the spiritual cycles all so intimately connected with
Karma and reincarnation, one would be compelled to conclude that this cycle will
not be slow or weak. For, if we in Europe and America are the reincarnations of
the ancients who formulated this philosophy, we must certainly be powerfully
affected upon having it presented to our notice in this life. And as the very
air is getting filled with theosophical ideas, and children are growing up every
day, the conclusion is irresistible that as the new generation grows up it will
be more familiar with theosophical terms and propositions than we were in our
youths. For in every direction now, children are likely to hear Karma,
Reincarnation, Buddhism, Theosophy, and all these ideas mentioned or discussed.
In the course of twenty-five years, then, we shall find here in the United
States a large and intelligent body of people believing once more in the very
doctrines which they, perhaps ages ago, helped to define and promulgate.
Why not, then, call one of our present cycles the cycle of the Theosophical
Society? It began in 1875, and, aided by other cycles then beginning to run, it
has attained some force. Whether it will revolve for any greater length of time
depends upon its earnest members. Members who enter it for the purpose of
acquiring ideas merely for their own use will not assist. Mere numbers do not do
the work, but sincere, earnest, active, unselfish members will keep this cycle
always revolving. The wisdom of those who set it in motion becomes apparent when
we begin to grasp somewhat the meaning of cyclic law. The Society could have
remained a mere idea and might have been kept entirely away from outward
expression in organization. Then, indeed, ideas similar to those prevalent in
our Society might have been heard of. But how? Garbled, and presented only here
and there, so that perhaps not for half a century later would they be concretely
presented. A wise man, however, knows how to prepare for a tide of spiritual
influence. But how could an every-day Russian or American know that
p.198
1875 was just the proper year in which to begin so as to be ready for the
oncoming rush now fairly set in? To my mind the mere fact that we were organized
with a definite platform in that year is strong evidence that the "heroic tribe
of heroes" had a hand in our formation. Let us, then, not resist the cycle, nor,
complaining of the task, sit down to rest. There is no time for rest. The weak,
the despairing, and the doubting may have to wait, but men and women of action
cannot stand still in the face of such an opportunity.

Arise, then, O
Atlanteans, and repair the mischief done so long ago!

Roll on, O Wheel, roll
on and conquer;
Roll on forevermore!

Path, December, 1889

EVOLUTION

THE word "evolution" is the best word from a theosophical standpoint to use
in treating of the genesis of men and things, as the process which it designates
is that which has been always stated in the ancient books from whose perusal the
tenets of the wisdom religion can be gathered. In the Bhagavad Gita
we find Krishna saying that "at the beginning of the day of Brahma all things
come forth from the non-developed principle, and at the coming on of Brahma's
night they are resolved into it again," and that this process goes on from age
to age. This exactly states evolution as it is defined in our dictionaries,
where it is said to be a process of coming forth or a development. The "days and
nights of Brahma" are immense periods of time during which evolution proceeds,
the manifestation of things being the "day" and their periodical resolution into
the Absolute the "night."

If, then, everything is evolved, the word creation can only be properly
applied to any combination of things already in existence, since the primordial
matter or basis cannot be created.

The basis of the theosophical system is evolution, for in theosophy it is
held that all things are already in esse, being brought forth or
evolved from time to time in conformity to the inherent law of the Absolute. The
very next question to be asked is, What is this inherent law of the Absolute? as
nearly as can be stated. Although we do not and cannot know the Absolute, we
have enough data from which to draw the conclusion that its inherent law is to
periodically come forth
p.200
from subjectivity into objectivity and to return again
to the former, and so on without any cessation. In the objective world we have a
figure or illustration of this in the rising and setting of the sun, which of
all natural objects best shows the influence of the law. It rises, as H. P. Blavatsky says, from the (to us) subjective, and at night returns to the
subjective again, remaining in the objective world during the day. If we
substitute, as we must when attempting to draw correspondences between the
worlds, the word "state" for locality or place, and instead of the sun we call
that object "the Absolute," we have a perfect figure, for then we will have the
Absolute rising above the horizon of consciousness from the subjective state,
and its setting again for that consciousness when the time of night arrives that
is, the night of Brahma. This law of periodicity is the same as that of the
cycles, which can be seen governing in every department of nature.

But let us assume a point of departure so as to get a rapid survey of
evolution theosophically considered. And let it be at the time when this period
of manifestation began. What was projected into the objective world at that time
must have been life itself, which under the action of the law of differentiation
split itself up into a vast number of lives, which we may call individual, the
quantity of which it is not possible for us of finite mind to count. In the
Hindu system these are called Jivas and Jivatman. Within these lives there is
contained the entire plan to be pursued during the whole period of
manifestation, since each life is a small copy of the great All from which it
came. Here a difficulty arises for studious minds, calling for some attention,
for they may ask "What then do you do with that which we call 'matter', and by
and through which the lives manifest themselves?"

The reply is that the so-called matter is an illusion and is not real matter,
but that the latter--sometime known in Europe as primordial matter--cannot be
seen by us. The real matter is itself only another form of the life first thrown
out, but in a less perfect state of differentiation, and it is on a screen of
this real matter that its inner energies project pictures which we call matter,
mistaking them for the real. It
p.201
may then be further asked, "Have we not been led
to suppose that that which we supposed was matter but which you now say is an
illusion is something absolutely necessary to the soul for acquiring experience
of nature?" To this I reply that such is not the case, but that the matter
needed for the soul to acquire experience through is the real unseen matter. It
is that matter of which psychic bodies are composed, and those other "material"
things all the way up to spirit. It is to this that the Bhagavad Gita
refers where it says that spirit (purusha) and matter (prakriti) are coeternal
and not divisible from each other. That which we and science are accustomed to
designate matter is nothing more than our limited and partial cognition of the
phenomena of the real or primordial matter. This position is not overturned by
pointing to the fact that all men in general have the same cognitions of the
same objects, that square objects are always square and that shadows fall in the
same line for all normal people, for even in our own experience we see that
there is such a thing as a collective change of cognition, and that thus it is
quite possible that all normal people are merely on the single plane of
consciousness where they are not yet able to cognize anything else. In the case
of hypnotizing everything appears to the subject to be different at the will of
the operator, which would not be possible if objects had any inherent actuality
of their own apart from our consciousness.

In order to justify a discussion of the Theosophical system of evolution, it
is necessary to see if there be any radical difference between it and that which
is accepted in the world, either in scientific circles or among Theologians.
That there is such a distinction can be seen at once, and we will take first
that between it and Theology. Here, of course, this is in respect to the genesis
of the inner man more especially, although Theology makes some claim to know
about race descent. The Church either says that the soul of each man is a
special creation in each case or remains silent on the subject, leaving us, as
it was once so much the fashion to say, "In the hands of a merciful Providence,"
who after all says nothing on the matter. But when the question of the race is
raised, then the
p.202
priest points to the Bible, saying that we all come from one
pair, Adam and Eve. On this point Theology is more sure than science, as the
latter has no data yet and does not really know whether we owe our origin to one
pair, male and female, or to many. Theosophy, on the other hand, differs from
the Church, asserting that Paramatmaalone is
self-existing, single, eternal, immutable, and common to all creatures, high and
low alike; hence it never was and never will be created; that the soul of man
evolves, is consciousness itself, and is not specially created for each man born
on the earth, but assumes through countless incarnations different bodies at
different times. Underlying this must be the proposition that, for each
Manvantara or period of manifestation, there is a definite number of souls or
egos who project themselves into the current of evolution which is to prevail
for that period or manvantara. Of course this subject is limitless, and the
consideration of the vast number of systems and worlds where the same process is
going on with a definite number of egos in each, staggers the minds of most of
those who take the subject up. And of course I do not mean to be understood as
saying that there is a definite number of egos in the whole collection of
systems in which we may imagine evolution as proceeding, for there could be no
such definiteness considered in the mass, as that would be the same as taking
the measure of the Absolute. But in viewing any part of the manifestation of the
Absolute, it is allowable for us to say that there are to be found such a
definite number of egos in that particular system under consideration; this is
one of the necessities of our finite consciousness. Following out the line of
our own argument we reach the conclusion that, included within the great wave of
evolution which relates to the system of which this earth is a part, there are
just so many egos either fully developed or in a latent state. These have gone
round and round the wheel of rebirth, and will continue to do so until the wave
shall meet and be transformed into another. Therefore there could be no such
thing as a special creation of souls for the different human beings born on this
earth, and for the additional reason that, if there were, then spirit would be
made subservi-
p.203
ent to illusion, to mere human bodies. So that in respect to
theology we deny the propositions, first, that there is any
special creation of souls,second, that there is, or was,
or could be by any possibility any creation of this world or of any other, and
third, that the human race descended from one pair.

In taking up the difference existing between our theory and that of science
we find the task easy. Upon the question of progress, and how progress or
civilization may be attained by man, and whether any progress could be possible
if the theories of science be true, our position is that there could be no
progress if the law of evolution as taught in the schools is true, even in a
material sense. In this particular we are diametrically opposed to science. Its
assumption is that the present race on the earth may be supposed to belong to a
common stock which in its infancy was rude and barbarous, knowing little more
than the animal, living like the animal, and learning all it now knows simply by
experience gained in its contest with nature through its development. Hence they
give us the paleolithic age, the neolithic age, and so on. In this scheme we
find no explanation of how man comes to have innate ideas. Some, however, seeing
the necessity for an explanation of this phenomenon, attempt it in various ways;
and it is a phenomenon of the greatest importance. It is explained by theosophy
in a way peculiar to itself, and of which more will be said as we go on.

W.Q.J.Path,August,1890

RINGS, ROUNDS, AND
OBSCURATION

A NUMBER of correspondents have propounded questions growing out of a recent
article on "Evolution" and relating to the great progress round the chain of
globes of which this earth is one. One of these is:

If we are transferred to the next planet of our chain, shall we be born
there like a child on this one, or have we to evolve through minerals, plants,
etc.?

No details, such as are requested in this enquiry, have been given out by the
Adepts, all that has been said being general in its nature wherever the other
planets of our chain were spoken of. In the Secret Doctrine
H. P. Blavatsky distinctly says the teaching has to do with this earth
particularly, and that when other planets are mentioned there are only hints,
except in regard to the grand fact that the human life-wave passes from this to
the next globe, and so on through the chain. The only other writer on this who
quotes authority is Mr. Sinnett in Esoteric Buddhism, and
in that he copies the letters sent him by H. P. B.’s Masters. He has information
of detail regarding only this earth. Consequently, to hazard an answer to the
question would be guessing. No one knows what exact function the other planets
in the chain perform; all we know is that the human life-wave does pass into the
next planet when the cycle is completed for this one. Whether we shall be born
there as human children or into other forms we do not know. And doubtless it is
not necessary we should be informed, inasmuch as ages must pass before we shall
be released from this world. By that time we should have forgotten the facts.

These considerations apply to another question. Whether
p.205
only a part, or the
whole, of the human family is at the same time on one globe. Of this we cannot
speak with authority. But in the Secret Doctrine the author says
the Adepts teach that seven races appear in the beginning on seven different
portions of the earth. This would appear to indicate that the egos within those
race-forms come from another planet in the chain. And as it is distinctly taught
that an obscuration overtakes a globe when the entire race deserts it for
another, it is very safe to assume the teaching to be that deserted planets go
into obscuration if the races that left them have not completed all their
rounds. And as the matter of obscuration as compared with pralaya—or
total destruction—is also raised, we may keep in mind at this point that a total
pralaya only comes when the entire seven rounds of the seven races around
the seven globes is completed. The obscuration is similar to the sleep of
man’s body, making a reawakening possible; while total pralaya is similar
to the actual death of the body of a man, followed by his ego’s going into the
state of Devachan. This agrees with the views given by H.P.B., as from
the Masters, that the Nirvana for the great human family is really that
long period which intervenes between the total death of a planetary chain and
the new birth of a new planetary chain, upon which a higher form of evolution
will be started at the hour of that new birth.

When the article in July PATH said "we must go round the whole chain of seven
planets three times more before as a race we are perfected," the words
as a race were intended to, as they do, point out that sub-races were not
being dealt with. Sub-races grow on the planet, and not by going to other ones.
Hence there is no obscuration or pralaya after a sub-race. As these, in
their process of formation, proceed with their development upon this globe—or
any other they may be on, cataclysms for that globe take place from time to
time, involving either the entire mass or only a portion of it. These cataclysms
are not obscurations of the globe. For the latter can only come on when the egos
of the race have abandoned the globe for the purpose of continuing work on
another of the same chain. And carrying on the correspondence for
p.206
the purpose of
illustration, those cataclysms are similar to the sicknesses and accidents which
come to a man during a single lifetime. When all the necessary sub-races have
been evolved, and the root, trunk, branch, twig, leaf, blossom, and fruit seven
in all—are completed, then the race, having been thus perfected as such, passes
on to the next globe in the chain. This is what is involved in the sentence
quoted from the July PATH.

Confusion may be avoided by remembering that the race of which we form a part
includes many sub-races, and that the term "sub-races" does not mean that a new
sub-race comes on only when a preceding one has disappeared. The true Hindus and
many European races are in our race, so that we and they are all sub-races. In
America a new sub-race is being formed as preparation for many others, all
preparing the ground for the final great race. It is only when sub-races have
fully accomplished their task that they leave this earth altogether. And in
saying they leave or disappear, what is meant is that the race as a physical
expression goes out, not that the egos in the bodies leave this world and go to
another one.

As all the egos engaged in this evolution are not in equal stages of
progress, but are very varied in their development, some forward and others
backward, the whole process is a matter of education for the egos. They go
backward and forward in the various sub-races which are on the earth at the same
time just as the development of the egos requires, in the same way as one
incarnates in family after family in his own race. So that in one life one may
be in an advanced sub-race in accordance with predominating qualities, but in
that incarnation may bring up certain defects or generate certain causes
requiring him to pass over next life to some other less progressed sub-race for
the purpose of extirpating the defects or working off the causes.

In this way accurate adjustment, perfect development, regularity and
roundness are all amply provided for. Classes of egos from time to time move up
en masse, and at last no ego is left requiring the development afforded
by some sub-races,
p.207
and the latter then, as physical forms, begin to die away,
being inhabited only by very low orders of intelligence which need no
description. But as these are much lower in power than even the mere
brain-matter of the forms they come into, the result is that they drag the
physical race down, they are unable to give the natural brain capacity its
normal expression, and that race will show all the signs of human decrepitude
until its remaining members, gradually becoming curiosities in Ethnology, are at
last engulfed altogether by death. This is one of the great facts in racial
history not yet understood by the world. A race is both physical and spiritual.
The physical body and brain require an informing intelligence of a degree of
power sufficient to keep up the exact amount of tension demanded by that sort of
body, and if this is not furnished the consequence will be that equilibrium is
destroyed, followed in time by sterility among the females of the race, leading
inevitably to extinction.

It is an obscure point, but of the highest importance. Not improbably many
will reject it, but the fact of racial extinction is known, as in the case of
Hottentots and others, and ordinary theories fail to show why a perfect blight
falls upon some masses of people.

Returning to the great progress of the seven races, it is to be noted that
when the complete seven have all finished the seven rounds the entire family of
egos evolving on the seven globes commences to leave the whole chain forever,
and the various globes composing it begin to die altogether. This, however, does
not take place at the same time for the whole seven. They die one by one because
the "human life wave" never arrives at or leaves any globe in a complete mass.
Such coming and going is similar to the migration of birds from zone to zone,
they being known to go in detachments until all have migrated. The advance
portion of the life-wave will arrive at globe seven on its last journey, the
remainder following; and thus the whole wave will be at last withdrawn from
globe after globe beginning with number one or A until the entire stream has
passed out from the seventh, it being, as it were, the door of departure. It is
evident, then, that globe
p.208
A, being the one to be first completely abandoned, has
time to throw its energies off into space for the purpose of beginning the
formation of a new first-plane globe to be ready in that new chain for the
incoming rush of pilgrim souls as soon as the rest between chains is over.

This is exactly what happened for the predecessors of this chain of globes,
and, as our earth is a fourth-round or fourth-plane globe, it was formed in
space by the energies of the old moon which is a fourth-plane globe of a former
chain. For this reason the Adepts call the Moon our parent, meaning the parent
of our globe. And the Moon may illustrate the question about obscuration
and pralaya, as she is not in obscuration but is in her final pralaya
and is disintegrating as quickly as nature will permit, this earth meanwhile
absorbing her particles slowly from day to day while the great cycle of our
evolution unerringly goes on. It has also been stated in letters from the Adepts
that the well-known planet Mars is now in obscuration. This means that the body
of the planet is, as it were, sleeping in space, as it rolls about the sun and
has no inhabitants on it such as we. The life-wave belonging to it has passed on
to the next or some other globe of its own chain, but since that wave has to
return, the body of the planet does not go into pralaya, but waits for the new
day. Its life as a sleeping globe is maintained by a certain subtle principle
which is not publicly referred to by those who know of it, and which will not
permit it to die until the whole chain of globes of which it is one has been
traversed seven times, or the equivalent of seven, by the wave of life belonging
to it.

Path, November, 1892

ROUNDS AND RACES

A FUNDAMENTAL axiom in Theosophy is that no one should accept as
unquestionably true any statement of fact, principle, or theory which he has not
tested for himself. This does not exclude a reasonable reliance upon testimony;
but only that blind credulity which sometimes passes for faith. As we understand
the rule, it is that we should at all times keep a clear and distinct boundary
between what we know, and what we only accept provisionally on the testimony of
those who have had larger experience until we reach a point of view from which
we can see its truth. We owe it to ourselves to enlarge the sphere of clear
knowledge and to push back as far as possible the boundary of opinion and
hypothesis.

The realm of knowledge has various departments. Our physical senses furnish
us one class of knowledge; our intellectual powers investigate another field on
mathematical lines; and yet another faculty enables us to apprehend ethical
teachings and to trace them to their true basis in Karma. That we have other
faculties, now largely latent, which when developed will enable us to enter
other fields of observation and investigation, is beginning to be seen and
appreciated. Among the subjects which man may thus in the future examine for
himself is a large block of truth concerning evolution, the out-breathing of the
Great Breath, the birth and development of a chain of globes, and of human life
thereon, some part of which has been imparted to us by those who claim to know,
and which is chiefly useful, perhaps, for the light which it throws on our
surroundings, our destiny, and our duty.
p.210
The grander sweeps of this block of truth are given to us in the barest
outline, and not until our present physical earth is reached do we find anything
like detailed information. From the hints given out, however, and reasoning
according to the doctrine of correspondences, "as above, so below," we may
plausibly infer many things in regard to other globes and other systems; but
such flights can hardly be taken with much profit or advantage until we become
thoroughly familiar with the things that are revealed in regard to our immediate
surroundings.

In reading what has been written about the evolution of our planetary chain,
it becomes apparent that some writers either did not have clear views on the
subject, or that confusion and even contradiction have resulted from difficulty
in finding words adapted to its expression and in using the words chosen in a
strictly consistent manner. The article entitled "Evolution" found on page 117
of THE PATH for July, 1892, is, it seems to me, open to this objection; and I
ask leave of the Editor to contribute briefly to the work of making the subject
more clear.

The planetary chain consists of seven companion globes, which for convenience
of reference are named from the first seven letters of the alphabet, A, B, C, D,
E, F, and G. We occupy globe D, the fourth in the chain. The course of evolution
begins on globe A, and proceeds by regular stages through globes B, C, D, E,
etc. In the beginning, globe A was first evolved, and life received a certain
degree of development upon it; then globe B came into existence, and the
life-wave removed from globe A to B, where it went forward another stage; then
globe C was evolved and received the life wave for a still further stage in its
progress; and so on, until at the end of the first round globe G was evolved and
furnished the field for the highest development attainable in that round.

The first round - the first tour of the life-wave through the seven globes
from A to G - having been completed, the monads - the life wave - passed again
to globe A, and commenced the second round, or the second tour through the
p.211
chain. Without following out details, it is enough to say that three such rounds
have been completed, and the fourth round has commenced its sweep and is still
in progress; and that we now occupy globe D in this fourth round. Three times
the life-wave has passed from globe A to globe G; and has now reached globe D in
its fourth tour through the chain.

Now, leaving entirely out of sight for the present what has happened during
the former three rounds, and on globes A, B, and C in this fourth round, let us
consider what has happened on globe D since the life-wave reached it this fourth
time; prefacing, however, the general statement that this globe will be
exhausted and the life-wave be ready to pass from it to Globe E when seven
root-races shall have finished their course here. Each root-race is divided into
seven sub-races; and each sub-race into seven family-races; and so on; these
divisions and subdivisions following each the other, and not coexisting, except
as an earlier race or division of a race may survive its time and overlap a
subsequent race or division. Since the life-wave reached globe D in this fourth
round, four root-races have run their course upon it, and the fifth root-race
has reached its fifth subdivision or sub-race, of which we are part. This fifth
sub-race is said to be preparing in America for transition or transformation
into the sixth sub-race: it is not entirely clear whether we in the United
States today belong to the seventh family-race of the fifth sub-race, or to the
first family race of the sixth sub-race. It seems certain that we are near the
transition point, unless there must be an intervening pralayic period.

The sixth and seventh sub-races of the fifth root-race must run their course,
and these must be followed by the sixth and seventh root-races with their
various subdivisions, before the life-wave passes from our present globe D and
begins its further evolution on globe E. From analogy we may infer that seven
great races, with their sub-races, etc., will be necessary to complete the work
of that globe; and the same for globes F and G, before the fourth round shall be
concluded and the life-wave be ready to pass to globe A for the beginning of the
fifth round.
p.212
Thus the planetary chain consists of seven globes; the life-wave makes during
the existence of the chain seven complete tours of the chain from globe A to
globe G, these tours being called rounds; the life-wave remains on each globe
after reaching it in each round, until it completes seven root races, divided
into forty-nine sub-races and into three hundred and forty-three family-races.

It should be remembered that the flow of the life-wave is not continuous: it
has its ebb as well as its flood. There is a period of rest or pralaya after the
close of each round before another is commenced: a pralaya after each globe in
the round; similarly each race, sub-race, etc., is preceded and followed by its
pralayic rest. The purpose of this paper is not to develop the entire scheme in
all its completeness, even if that were possible; but to bring out as sharply as
may be the general outlines, and especially to note the distinction between
rounds and races, the seven rounds being seven circuits of the entire chain,
while the seven root-races are seven life-waves (or seven repetitions of the
same wave) which consecutively flow and ebb on each globe before leaving it.
There are seven root-races on each globe; forty-nine root-races in each round;
three hundred and forty-three root-races in the seven rounds which complete the
life of the planetary chain.

In studying this subject, it must be borne in mind that, while numerous
passages in The Secret Doctrine refer to universal cosmogony and the
evolution of the solar system and of our planetary chain, still the bulk of that
work is devoted to the evolution of humanity on globe D in the fourth round
only. It must also be remembered that the groups of monads discussed in
"Theosophical Gleanings" in Vol. VI of Lucifer are not to be taken as
identical with the seven root-races through which the monadic host passes on
each globe in each round.

The foregoing outline of the course of evolution through the SEVEN ETERNITIES
of a maha-manvantara is mechanical and clumsy; it is only a skeleton, which must
be clothed upon with muscles and sinews by reading between the lines before
p.213
its
true relations and proportions can be understood. The following quotations from
The Secret Doctrine will perhaps throw a ray of light upon the connection
of the globes of the chain:

It only stands to reason that the globes which overshadow our earth must be
on different and superior planes. In short, as globes, they are in COADUNITION
but not IN CONSUBSTANTIALITYWITH OUR EARTH. (The capitals are in the text.)
Vol. I, p. 166.

When "other worlds" are mentioned . . . the Occultist does not locate
these spheres either outside or inside our Earth for their
location is nowhere in the space known to and conceived by the profane.
They are, as it were, blended with our world — interpenetrating it and
interpenetrated by it.
Vol. I, p. 605.

In a foot note to page 265 of Walker’s work on Reincarnation,
(Lovell’s edition), the opinion is expressed that the figures (seven planets,
seven rounds, seven races, etc.), are only symbols; even so: if they are
symbols, they must no less be clearly apprehended before the truths symbolized
can be grasped.

ALPHAPath, December, 1892

p.214 THE EARTH CHAIN OF GLOBES

ALTHOUGH H.P.B. gave out to several of those who met her during the period
from 1875 to 1878 the very same teachings in respect to the nature of man and of
the "worlds" he evolves in as were afterwards publicly expounded in Esoteric
Buddhism by Mr. Sinnett upon letters received by him through her from her
Teachers, the credit of thus publishing those teachings, if such credit is
desired, must be granted to that author. But at the time he began his
publications, we who had known the doctrines so many years before wrote to
H.P.B. complaining that the method adopted would lead to confusion on the
one hand and to a materializing of the doctrines on the other, while, of course,
no objection was made in general to the divulgement of what at a prior date had
been given us in confidence, for he could not and would not have given the
teachings to the public at all unless he had been permitted to do so. And after
all these years the confusion to which our letters adverted has arisen among
Theosophists, while there has been an apparent lack of attempt to clear it away.
In respect to the "Earth Chain of Globes," the materializing of the doctrine and
the confusion in the minds of students have been greater than in regard to any
other of the teachings. This cloudiness I will now attempt to dissipate, if
possible, with the help of some of H.P.B.’s own words in her book, the time
having arrived and permission being granted, and access being also had to
certain plain statements thereupon from the original sources.

In Esoteric Buddhism 6th ed., p. 77, we find in reference to the
"Chain of Globes":
p.215

Separated as these are in regard to the grossly mechanical matter of
which they consist, they are closely and intimately bound together by
subtle currents and forces. . . . It is along these subtle currents that
the life elements pass from world to world. . . . The most ethereal of the
whole series. . . . As it passes from world Z back again to world A.

Then follows, for illustrative purposes, the figure of a series of tubs to
represent the various globes of the whole series, one filling up from the
overflow out of the preceding tub. Further, that the life wave reaches
Globe A or B, and so on.

All this, in the absence of other explanations, and naturally consequent upon
modern habits of thought, has fixed the idea in minds of many that the seven
globes through which the evolution of man is carried on are in fact separated
from each other; that they have between each other spaces along which currents
flow to and from; and although the illustration of the series of tubs might be
very well used for even the most metaphysical of problems, it had the effect of
additionally deepening the idea of the actual separation from each other of the
seven "globes." It has been thought that they were as much apart from each as
any visible planet, although connected by "subtle currents and forces."

But the fact is otherwise. The seven globes of earth's chain are not
separated at all, and are interblended and mixed with each other. To make it
clearer, if we were to develop inner sight so as to perceive on the plane of the
next globe, the fifth, it would not appear as a definite ball in the sky or
space. Whether it be smaller or larger than this earth a fact not yet cleared up
it would be seen to possess the earth as the earth holds it.

It may be asked, Why was this not told in the beginning? Because it was
useless to tell, no one being at hand to understand it; and also because if
insisted on and it was not of enough importance to require insistence the
consequence might have been that even Mr. Sinnett would not have published his
invaluable and extremely useful book. He confessed in that work that the
doctrines propounded were new to him, and seemingly opposed to modern ideas of
nature. In great part this was true, though there were very many who
p.216
did not
find them new but who were not sufficient in number to risk then an insistence
on a point that might too far violate the materialistic conceptions prevalent.
Since then, however, times have altered, and a large and daily increasing number
of minds are ready for the destruction of the idea contained in these words from
the above quotation: "Separated as these are in regard to the grossly
mechanical matter of which they are composed."Strike out this statement, and
the rest of the explanation can be construed to agree with the facts as laid
down by those who inspired the book.

The globes of the earth-chain are not "separated in regard to the grossly
mechanical particles," but their particles are interblended. When we pass on to
the plane of life which Globe 5 or E represents, it will be and appear to
our then senses as gross, while the particles of this one will not be visible
although still interblended with the other. It was to this very sentence that we
objected in 1875 [1885?], because it contains the statement of a fallacy growing
out of materialistic conception.

On this very subject the teachers of H.P.B. wrote, Secret Doctrine,
V.I,p.166:

Were psychic and spiritual teachings more of Lilly understood, it would
become next to impossible to even imagine such an incongruity. . . . In short,
as Globes, they are in COADUNITIONbut not in
CONSUBSTANTIALITY WITH
OUR EARTH,and thus pertain to quite another state of consciousness.

This should be clear enough, and, as if to draw special attention to it, the
very words which give the correct doctrine about our "fellow globes" were
printed in capital letters.

"Consubstantiality" means the state of being the same substance. This is
negatived in respect to the globes; but it is asserted that they, being of
different substances, are united in one mass, for such is the meaning of "co-adunition."
If this be the case, as must be on the original authority, it then follows that
the " seven globes of earth's chain, while differing from each other as to what
is commonly called substance, are united together in a single mass. And when one
is asked to shake off the dense veil of matter which beclouds the sight
p.217
so as to
perceive another of the globes, it is by no means meant that the companion
globe, or globes as the case may be, would be seen rolling in space all by
itself": and this is from another explanatory letter from the first authority.
In the paragraph from Secret Doctrine attention is called to the fact
that just because the seven globes are in co-adunition but not in
consubstantiality with each other they pertain to a state of consciousness quite
other than that we are compelled to be in now.

As H.P.B. used a diagram in which the globes are set down as separated, it
only requires to be remembered that the system could not, on a flat surface by
mere lines, be illustrated in any other way and be at all clear. Besides, all
the diagrams and illustrations must be construed with the quotation on p. 1 66
in view, as well as the numerous pages of similar explanations.

Every student should make inquiry of himself to see what his ideas are on
this subject, and revise them if they are found not to be in accord with what
was so clearly explained in the words above quoted. For this lies at the root of
many other difficulties. Materialistic conceptions on this will lead to
materializing, localizing, and separating of states such as Devachan, and to
perhaps dogmas about places that do not exist, when states of consciousness
should be dwelt upon. For, as was written in a letter quoted by H.P.B.:

Unless less trouble is taken to reconcile the irreconcilable - that is to
say, the metaphysical and spiritual sciences with physical or natural
philosophy, "natural" being a synonym to them [men of science] of that matter
which falls under the perception of their corporeal senses - no progress can
be really achieved.

And on page 169 of Vol. I of Secret Doctrine is a sentence not printed
as a quotation, but which is really one from one of the same teacher's letters,
reading:

To be fully realized [the evolution of the monads on the
globes] both this process and that of the birth of the globes must
be examined far more from their metaphysical aspect than from what one might
call a statistical standpoint.

Although the Lodge has declared through the mouth of
p.218
H.P.B. that the complete
truth on these matters is the heritage of future generations, yet we who are
working in the movement now, believing in reincarnation and knowing the force of
Karmic tendencies, must not forget that we are destined to return in future
years once more to the same work. We should therefore study the pure spiritual,
psychic, and metaphysical aspects of the doctrines, leaving disputes with the
changing science of the day to those who are amused by it. For those disputes
are wholly unimportant, since they will all pass away; but the spirit of truth
will not pass, nor shall we who endeavor to find her and to understand what she
says to us.

WILLIAM
Q. JUDGE

II

IN February PATH the subject of the coadunition but non-consubstantiality of
the seven globes of the Earth-chain was opened up slightly and discussed in view
of certain expressions from the Adepts themselves on the same matter. Since then
questions and doubts have arisen, as it seems that-as was suspected-the
fundamental principles underlying this doctrine have not been clearly defined in
the minds of all. And, indeed, before such clear definition is arrived at most
if not all of the naturalistic and materialistic doctrines and modes of thought
of the day will have to be abandoned. The true theory of the companion globes of
our earth is one which cannot be fully comprehended if we are influenced, as
many are, by the education which for centuries has been imposed upon us. When
the adepts say that these doctrines must be examined from a metaphysical
standpoint, the nineteenth century person thinks that therefore it must be so
vague and unreal as not to constitute an inclusion of facts, since "facts" are
hard and visible things, so to say.

The first question, coming from one who grasps to a great extent the theory
broached in the paragraph from the Master's pen quoted in Secret Doctrine, is
whether we will be able to see but one globe at a time as we change our centre
of con
p.219
sciousness? That is to say, seeing that we now can perceive the earth with
the eye and none of the other companions, does it follow from this that, when
the race ceases to function on the earth and has taken up evolution on the next
globe in order, we shall see then but that globe and none of the others of the
chain among which will then be included this earth? It by no means follows that
we then shall be able to see but one, but to what extent our then vision will be
stretched or how many other globes we shall be able to see has not been given
out publicly by the Masters, and it is held that alone in the keeping of the
Lodge is the knowledge on this detail of the doctrine. We are left therefore to
our own deductions, to be drawn from known facts. No very substantial benefit
could be derived from exact knowledge about it, as it relates to matters and
states of life removed from us inconceivably far both as to time and
consciousness. Nor would a full explanation be comprehended. One of the teachers
has written:

You do not seem to realize the tremendous difficulties in the way of
imparting even the rudiments of our science to those who have been
trained in the familiar methods of (modern science). You do not see that the
more you have of the one the less capable you are to instinctively comprehend
the other, for a man can only think in his worn grooves, and unless he has
the courage to fill up these and make new ones for himself [italics are
mine] he must perforce travel on the old lines. .
Such is, unfortunately. the inherited and self-acquired grossness of the
Western mind, and so greatly have the very phrases expressive of modern
thought been developed in the line of practical Materialism, that it is now
next to impossible either for them to comprehend or for us to express in their
own languages anything of that delicate, seemingly ideal, machinery of the
occult cosmos. To some little extent that faculty can be acquired by the
Europeans through study and meditation, but-that's all. And here is the bar
which has hitherto prevented a conviction of the Theosophical truths from
gaining currency among Western nations-caused Theosophical study to be cast
aside as useless and fantastic.

As implied in the foregoing, the reason for not telling all about it is that
it would not be comprehended, and not that the Lodge desires to keep it back
from the world. The same difficulty has often been encountered by ordinary
clairvoyants who have tried to give an account of the little they know of
p.220
the
"occult cosmos" to hearers whose modes of thought were purely materialistic or
tainted by that kind of education. And I have met estimable theosophists who
said to me that if they really were convinced that I believed certain things
which I hinted to them they would be forced in sadness to conclude I was a most
superstitious person meaning of course that their ignorance and inability would
constitute my superstition.

But as we now reside in a physical body perfectly visible to us, and as the
astral body is sometimes seen by certain persons, it follows most surely that
some persons can now see another body or form of matter while functioning in
their little earth. The fact that all do not see the astral body only proves
that as yet the seeing of it is not normal for the whole human race. And looking
at the other side of the matter, we know that sometimes persons escaped
temporarily from the physical body and functioning wholly in the astral have
been able to see the physical one as it slept in trance. From this we may
conclude that when the race has gone to some other centre of consciousness
called a globe, it may possibly be able to see another of the companions in the
sky. This is made more probable from the fact that the Earth is the lowest or at
the turning of the circle, and for that reason it is on its own plane and not in
company as to plane with any other one. The others might be two at a time on the
one plane and then visible to each other.

The next point raised is that if the article of February is accepted, then it
results that we consider the companion globes to be only "phases of the Earth."
The letter from the Master above quoted is pertinent here, for this objection
arises solely and wholly from a materialistic education leading the objector to
give the first place of importance to the earth, just as if it were not possible
to say that earth is a phase of the other globes.

The globes are not in any sense phases of each other, but are "phases of
consciousness." The consciousness alters and we function in another state of
matter, in the same place, but not able to see the state of matter we have left.
And as now the whole race is bound up by its total form and quality of
p.221
consciousness, the units of it are compelled to remain in the general state of
consciousness until the race progress permits an advance or change to another.
In the evolution of the race it develops new senses and instruments for
perception, but these proceed along with the changing centre of consciousness,
and are not the causes for the latter but are effects due to the operation and
force of that inner power of perceiving which at last compels nature to furnish
the necessary instrument. When the new instruments are all perfected, then the
whole race moves on to another plane altogether.

All this supports and enforces the doctrine of universal brotherhood upon
which the Adepts have insisted. For the changing of consciousness as to centre
is not for the benefit of the individual, but is permissible and possible when
the whole mass of matter of the globe whereon the beings are evolving has been
perfected by the efforts and work of the most advanced of the whole number, and
that advanced class is man. If it were otherwise, then we should see millions
upon millions of selfish souls deserting the planet as soon as they had acquired
the necessary new senses, leaving their fellows and the various kingdoms of
nature to shift for themselves. But the law and the Lodge will not permit this,
but insist that we shall remain until the lower masses of atoms have been far
enough educated to be able to go on in a manner not productive of confusion.
Here again we trench upon the materialism of the age, which will roar with
laughter at the idea of its being possible to educate the atoms.

The doctrine of the interpenetration of the planes of matter lies at the root
of clairvoyance, clairaudience, and all such phenomena. Clairvoyance would be an
impossibility were it not the fact that what for the ordinary sense is solid and
an obstacle to sight is in reality for the other set of senses non-existent,
free from solidity, and no obstacle. Otherwise clear seeing is impossible, and
the learned doctors are right who say we are all deluded and never did any one
see through a solid wall. For while the faculty of imagination is necessary for
the training of the power to see through a solid wall, we could not so perceive
merely by imagination, since objects
p.222
must have a medium through which they are
to be seen. This again strikes against materialistic conceptions, for the
"objective" usually means that which can be seen and felt. But in the machinery
of the "occult cosmos" the objective is constantly changing to the subjective
and vice versa, as the centre of consciousness changes. In the trance or
clairvoyant state the subjective of the waking man has become the objective. So
also in dreams. There, clothed with another body of finer texture, the perceiver
finds all the experiences objective as to their circumstances and subjective as
to the feelings they produce on the perceiver who registers the sensations. And
in precisely similar manner will the race see, feel, and know when it has
changed all and begins to function on another globe.

WILLIAM BREHON
Path, February and March. 1893

THE EARTH CHAIN OF GLOBES
III

The Editor has handed me a communication from a reader upon this subject
which I insert here, as it on the one hand shows a very common defect of
students-inaccuracy of reading, thought, and reference, and on the other will
serve as a question which arises in other minds. It reads:

Please state in reference to the Earth Chain of Globes whether it is
meant to be conveyed on page 159 of S. D. Vol. I that the "seven globes from
the 1st to the 7th proceed in seven Rounds," that each globe
revolves seven times around the World Chain with its own particular
development [say the Mineral Kingdom], before the next in order
[say the Vegetable Kingdom] appears on Globe A? Or does the Mineral Kingdom
only go once around the World Chain from I to 7? In Esoteric Buddhism,
page 91, it is stated that the several kingdoms pass "several times
around the whole circle as minerals, and then again several times as
vegetables," but there is no distinct statement of this in S.D.-
Yours, IGNOTUS.

Inaccuracies like those in the foregoing are not uncommon. They are constant
and all-pervading. It is probably the fault of modern education, accentuated by
the reading of a vast amount of superficial literature such as is poured out day
by day. Any close observer can detect the want of attention displayed in
metaphysical studies in contrast with the particular care given to matters of
business and practical affairs of life. All those who are studying Theosophy
ought to make themselves aware of this national defect, and therefore give the
strictest attention to what they read upon metaphysics and devote less attention
to the amount of such reading than to thinking upon what is read.

In the first place, the Secret Doctrine does not say on the
p.224
page quoted, nor
anywhere else, what "Ignotus" writes. Instead of reading as quoted, the passage
is:

I. Everything in the metaphysical as in the physical Universe is septenary.
[p. 158] . . . The evolution of life proceeds on these seven globes or
bodies from the first to the seventh in Seven Rounds or Seven Cycles [p.
159].

I insert in italics the omitted words, the word proceeds having been put out
of its place by "Ignotus." The error makes a completely new scheme, one
unphilosophical and certainly not given out by the Masters. But though some may
wonder why I notice such a false assumption, it is right to take it up because
it must have arisen through carelessness, yet of such a sort as might perpetuate
an important error. It follows from the restoration of the passage that the
Globes do not "revolve around the world chain." The supposition of the
correspondent is not peculiar among the many hurried ones made by superficial
readers. He first assumed that the various globes of the Earth-Chain revolved,
in some way which he did not stop to formulate, in seven rounds-I presume in
some imaginary orbit of their own-in what he called the "world chain," and then
he went on adapting the rest of the evolutionary theory to this primary
assumption. By reading the Secret Doctrine and the former articles on
this subject in the PATH, the point in question will be made clear. Evolution of
the monad, which produces and underlies all other evolutions, proceeds on the
seven planetary bodies of any chain of evolution. These seven places or spheres
for such evolution represent different states of consciousness, and hence, as
written in the Secret Doctrine and attempted to be shown in these
articles, they may and do interpenetrate each other with beings on each.
Therefore all such words as "round," "around," "chain," and the like must be
examined metaphysically and not be allowed to give the mind a false notion such
as is sure to arise if they are construed in the material way and from their
materialistic derivation. "To go around" the seven globes does not mean that one
passes necessarily from one place to another, but indicates a change from one
condition to another,
p.225
just as we might say that a man "went the whole round of
sensations."

As to the other questions raised, Esoteric Buddhism is right in saying
that the monads pass several times around the globes as minerals and
vegetables, but wisely does not make the number and order very definite. In the
Secret Doctrine one of the Masters writes that at the second round the order of
the appearance of the human kingdom alters, but the letter goes no farther on
that point except to say, as is very definitely put in the Secret Doctrine
on p. 159, para. 4;

The Life Cycle . . . arrived on our Earth at the commencement of the Fourth
in the present series of life-cycles and races. Man is the first form that
appears thereon, being preceded only by the mineral and vegetable
kingdoms-even the latter having to develop and continue its further
evolution through man.

This states quite distinctly (a) that after the second round the order
alters, and (b) that in the fourth round, instead of animals appearing as the
first moving forms for the monads to inhabit, the human form comes first,
preceded by mineral and vegetable, and followed by the brute-animal.

This change always comes on at any fourth round, or else we never could have
evolutionary perfection. Other monads come originally from other spheres of
evolution. In a new one such as this the preliminary process and order of
mineral, plant, animal, human must be followed. But having in two or three
rounds perfected itself in the task, the monad brings out 'the human form at the
turning point, so that man as the model, means, guide, and savior may be able to
intelligently raise up not only humanity but as well every other kingdom below
the human. This is all made very clear and positive by repeated statement and
explanation in the Secret Doctrine, and it is a matter for surprise that
so many Theosophists do not understand it.

For fear that the present may be misunderstood I will add. Although the order of
appearance of the human form alters as stated, this does not mean that the whole
number of natural kingdoms does not make the sevenfold pilgrimage. They all
p.226
make
it, and in every round up to and including the seventh there are present in the
chain of globes elemental, mineral, vegetable, animal, and human forms
constituting those kingdoms, but of course the minerals and vegetables of the
seventh round and race will be a very different sort from those of the present.

But as what a Master has said hereon is far better than my weak words, I will
refer to that. Thus:

Nature consciously prefers that matter should be indestructible under
organic rather than inorganic forms, and works slowly but incessantly towards
the realization of this object-the evolution of conscious life out of inert
material.

WILLIAM BREHONPath, April, 1893

Kali Yuga And The Coming Race

(1) How many years are there in Kali Yuga? (2) Will the sixth sub-race begin
very soon, that is, will it be at the end of the cycle of the first five
thousand years of Kali Yuga? (3) Cannot a person of the fifth race come near
where the sixth race shall live?

(1) Kali Yuga is said by the Brahmins and the Secret Doctrine to be
432,000 years long. We will have to accept the calculation for the present.

(2) Many thousands of years will pass before the next race will be here, and
you will have died several times over before that, and also it is probable you
will be one of that race unless you go to some other planet. You have made the
error of supposing that the end of the cycle in 1898 is the end of the race. It
is not. It is but a minor cycle, though quite important in its way. Hence-

(3) As we, including you, will be members of the new race in all probability
if we take advantage of our opportunities, there is no profit in the question or
its answer, for the sixth race not being due for so many centuries, and you
being eligible for membership in it, there is no sequence. When the sixth race
has fully come, many degenerate examples of the bodies of the fifth will be here
with it and among it, but no special place will be kept for its development.

Path, January, 1895

ON EVOLUTION

A correspondent of PATH says:

I am unable to get a comprehensive view of evolution theosophically. Does a
"round" mean once around the 7 planets which belong to the earth chain? If so,
how is the moon our parent?

A round means a going once around the seven globes of the earth-chain. It was
also called a "ring." Some have confused it with incarnating in the seven races
on any one planet. The seven races have to go seven times around the seven
globes of this chain, developing in each the characteristics of each, which
cannot be obtained in any other way.

There are seven globes in the chain, of which the earth is one. The other six
are not visible to us, as they are made of matter in a different state, and on a
different plane from matter as we know it and see it. The first race began on
Globe No. 1 and carried on evolution there, and then went to Globe No. 2, and so
on all around the seven. This it did seven times. Race No. 2 proceeded
similarly, having in its possession all that was gained by No.1. We are now the
Fifth Race engaged in going round the whole chain; hence we are called those of
the Fourth Round, but are the Fifth Race. We must go round the whole chain of 7
planets 3 times more before as a race we are perfected.

When the Seventh Round is finished, as well as the halt for rest that
follows, we begin again as a Sixth Race and go through Seven Rounds as such.
When that is concluded we begin as the Seventh Race and repeat the process of
Seven Rounds through the chain, thus bringing the grand evolution
p.228
for this chain
to a perfect end. After that we pass on upon a higher plane, the possessors of
all the knowledge and development acquired during that sevenfold progress. This
is the outline of the grand scheme, and, as you see, includes the whole series
of seven planets.

But in every round of planets, on each one, and in each race as it begins and
proceeds, there are many sub-races, root races, and offshoots, all necessary in
the process of development for each race. For a race cannot spring up in a
moment, out of nothing; it must grow forth from something. Therefore a new race
is made by offshoots making sub-roots that finally grow slowly in the main race
which will be. This is occurring in America, and hence here is afforded a
present and perfect illustration. For here many examples of various root and
sub-and offshoot races coming together, by generation of children among
themselves, are producing the sub-root for the new race. This process will go on
for a long period, during which old, decayed branchlets and offshoot families
and races will be absorbed into the new growing stem, and when the time is
ready-a long way off-for the new race, all will have to migrate to the next
planet.

It is now plain that ring and round do not mean the process of
going through the race in its process of formation on any planet, as its
beginnings come on and are finally replaced by its finished product, but that
these words refer to the grand march around the whole chain of globes, of which
this earth is the fourth.

The question about the moon ought now to be clear. It is evident that the moon
is not one of the 7 planets. By reading the Secret Doctrine we see that
the moon is a deserted planet on the same plane as the earth-a
fourth-round globe of a previous manvantara. It is the old fourth globe of an
old chain, and is the parent of the earth, while the other six globes of our
chain have similar parents, visible only from those globes. It is our parent
because we came from it when the hour struck, long ago, for the migration from
it of the humanity that had thereon passed through its grand sevenfold
pilgrimage. In like
p.229
manner, some future day, this earth will become "a moon" to
some newer planet not now born.

Ques. 2-If the prototype of all forms has always existed, how can new forms
come through evolution of the physical or material?

New material forms may come, but they are not prototypes. The latter are not
material, therefore no confusion between the two can exist. There is evolution
of material forms, but prototypes remain unaffected. This is a question which
requires the questioner to look up exact meanings of the words used by him. It
is not substantial. Fix the true meanings and the confusion will vanish.

Ques. 3-If man made his first appearance as a material body, why does the
embryo pass through all the changes, vegetable and animal, before birth?

It is the order of nature. All the atoms have to grow used to their work
before they can do it well and quickly. At first as astral atoms only, they do
it over and over again until all the atoms acquire the habit of doing it without
fail. They then go on to other work. This having been the way for ages, the
human body is now gestated in nine months, whereas at earlier periods such
gestation took years, later on fewer years, and finally as now. In future times
the process will be finished more quickly, and then the embryo will pass through
all these old states almost instantaneously. The reason, therefore, is that the
physical human molecules of this period of evolution have only acquired the
ability to pass through the series in nine months, as a result of millions of
years of prior slow work. For nature goes by steps, one at a time. The embryo
exhibits these phases because there are still left in the matter used the old
impressions, and racial evolution is gradually wiping them out by transforming
them into new organs, by eliminating those not useful and by condemning others.
When the work is fully understood by every atom so that it acts with
unerring, machine-like precision, it will be possible to bring out a body in a
very short space of time.

Path, July, 1892

MARS AND MERCURY

IN the June PATH there was printed a review of a pamphlet issued by the
London Lodge T. S., and this magazine may perhaps be construed as committed to
an approval of everything contained in the pamphlet, although the private
initials of the reviewer were annexed to the remarks. The pamphlet referred to
brings up an old dispute which we had thought was settled by what is found in
The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, running from page 162 to 168. "Gratification of
curiosity is the end of knowledge for some men," wrote H.P.B.'s teacher, and
this curiosity led to a question being put some years ago to the Adepts, who
furnished the main body of Esoteric Buddhism and all the important matter
in The Secret Doctrine, in respect to other visible globes. The author of
Esoteric Buddhism then construed the reply to mean that Mars and Mercury
are two of the seven planets of the earth-chain of globes. H.P.B., the only
person in actual and constant communication with the Masters, corrected the
mistake made by Mr. Sinnett in the pages of The Secret Doctrine to which
I have referred, saying on page 164: "But neither Mars nor Mercury belongs to
our chain; they are, along with the other planets, septenary Units in the great
host of 'chains' of our system, and all are as visible as their upper globes are
invisible." Her correction of the misconception was made upon the written
authority of the same Masters who sent through her the letters on which
Esoteric Buddhism was written.

On the ground of authority in respect to this question, about which none of the
Theosophical writers have any information independent of what the Masters have
written, we must con-
p.231
clude that the statement in The Secret Doctrine is
final. If no other point were involved, there would be no necessity for going
further with the matter, but as the consistency of the entire philosophy is
involved, it is necessary to advert again to this subject. The two Masters who
had to do with Esoteric Buddhism and The Secret Doctrine have
distinctly said:-first, that none of the other globes of the earth-chain are
visible from its surface; second, that various planets are visible in the sky to
us because they are in their turn fourth-plane planets, representing to our
sight their own septenary chains; third, that the six companion globes of the
earth are united with it in one mass, but differ from it as to class of
substance; fourth, that Mr. Sinnett misunderstood them when he thought they
meant to say that Mars and Mercury were two of the six fellow globes of the
earth-and this correction they make most positively in The Secret Doctrine;
lastly, they have said that the entire philosophy is one of correspondences, and
must be so viewed in every part. We do not understand that Mr. Sinnett has said
that H.P.B. was not reporting the Masters when she wrote the above in The
Secret Doctrine, or that the Masters have denied that they hold the above
views.

If we admit that Mars and Mercury are two visible planets of the seven-fold
chain belonging to the earth, then the consistency of the philosophy is
destroyed, for as it is with planets, so it is with man. Every planet,
considered for the moment as an individual, is to be analysed in the same way as
a single human being, subject to the same laws in the same way. Hence, if two of
the principles of the earth are visible, that is, Mars and Mercury, then why is
it that two of man's seven principles are not visible, in addition to his body?
In his seven-fold constitution his body represents the earth in her septenary
chain, but he cannot see objectively any other of his principles. The philosophy
must be consistent throughout. If it is inconsistent at one point it fails at
every other. The same Masters who have communicated through H.P.B. with Mr.
Sinnett for the purpose of having Esoteric Buddhism written, have over
and over again positively stated that the law of
p.232
correspondence rules throughout
in this philosophy.

The earth is a fourth-plane planet. The beings upon it are now in the fourth
stage, and for that reason cannot see objectively any planet that is not on the
same plane of development, and every planet which they see is for that reason a
fourth-plane planet. If this be correct, then Mars and Mercury must be
fourth-plane planets, and hence not in the earth's chain of globes.

If we assume with the writer of the pamphlet referred to that Mars and Mercury
are two out of the whole seven of which the earth is a third, then the question
arises, To what principle do these two planets correspond?, for they must
correspond to either prana, kama, astral body, Manas,
Buddhi, or Atman. Any attempt at an answer to this question will show
the confusion in the assumption; for it is admitted that Mars is in obscuration,
and the natural question then would be, Which of the earth's principles is
correspondingly in obscuration'? In attempting to answer this from the
assumption started with, we have the statement that Mars is the planet we have
last been in, hence it must represent a disused faculty or principle, and not
one which we are about to develop. As Manas is the next principle to be
fully developed, it would follow that Mars does not represent it, and hence the
whole matter falls into confusion, because the first four principles have been
already developed and are not in disuse. Following this on the false assumption,
then Mars would represent an eighth principle.

Mars is in a state of obscuration at the present time, as stated by the Masters
and H.P.B. This is because, in that chain of development, the Egos have finished
their fourth round, or because the fourth round has not yet commenced, except in
respect to the planet itself as a place of habitation, the Egos having passed on
to the next globe of that chain, quite as invisible from the surface of Mars as
our next globe in order is invisible from our surface. The same may be said for
Mercury, except in respect to obscuration, since the information vouchsafed
about it declares that it is beginning to get out of the obscuration caused by
the absence of Egos.

A reference to the pages of The Secret Doctrine referred to
p.233
above will be
found helpful on this point. It is also stated on page 163 of that book, Vol. 1,
on the authority of the Masters, that "No companion planets from A to Z,
that is, no upper globes of any chain in the Solar System, can be seen." I may
say that the relation borne by Mars and Mercury to the earth will not be spoken
of or explained by the Masters. Furthermore, one of the Masters wrote to the
author of Esoteric Buddhism in respect to this matter, stating, "You are
putting me questions pertaining to the highest initiation. I can give you only a
general view, but I dare not, nor will I enter upon details."

It is not necessary for us to know the relation between Mars, Mercury, and the
Earth, especially, nor to know whether Mars and Mercury are in any particular
state; all that is necessary is to know, do they or not belong to our chain? And
that they do not has been distinctly stated, both from the position of authority
and upon the ground of consistent philosophy. Upon authority, because in no
other way can we solve this riddle; upon philosophy, to show the reasonableness
of the authoritative statement. All such difficulties can be solved by
remembering and working upon the law that, as it is in respect to man and his
principles or vehicles, so it is in respect to any planet whatever.

WILLIAM
Q. JUDGE Path, July, 1893

HOW TO SQUARE THE
TEACHINGS

PLACE has been given to Mr. Sinnett's admirably written article "Esoteric
Teaching" for two good reasons:first, because he requested its publication, and second, because
the theme is excellent and the time propitious. But by its appearance the PATH
is not bound to the conclusions of the learned author. **In the article here referred to by Mr. Judge, published in the same issue of
the Path, Mr. Sinnett had commented critically on the article, "Mars and
Mercury."

Roughly summarizing the history of the recrudescence of the teaching of the
Lodge for this century, we find H.P.B. publicly beginning it, though guardedly,
in Isis Unveiled as herself the messenger of the real Teachers behind. At
that time (1875) she gave private teachings(1) in America to
certain persons.
(1) Moreover, a considerable part of the philosophy expounded by Mr. Sinnett was
taught in America, even before Isis Unveiled was published, to two
Europeans and to my colleague, Col. H. S. Olcott.-Secret Doctrine, vol.
I, p. xix.

Then in India in the Theosophist, with H.P.B. as editor,
it proceeds to further unfolding in articles entitled "Fragments of Occult
Truth." It is a pity this name was not preserved and used for the book which the
"Fragments" after-wards became-Esoteric Buddhism. Later the Occult
World came out in 1884, and also Esoteric Buddhism. During all this
time H.P.B. was doing her own work with others, explaining the same philosophy
as was given to Mr. Sinnett, and contributed to literature the Key to
Theosophy and the Secret Doctrine. The fact-not denied by Mr. Sinnett
or anyone- is that the letters from the Masters from which the matter for
Esoteric Buddhism was taken came in the main through H.P.B., for although it
is true she "showed surprise" to Mr.
p.235
Sinnett on seeing certain things
communicated to him in letters from the Masters, the surprise was not at
teachings which were new to her, but surprise that they were divulged at all,
for she knew the teaching, inasmuch as she taught it under pledge as far back as
from 1875 to 1878 in America.

In her Secret Doctrine, availing herself of the same teachers to whom she
introduced Mr. Sinnett, she corrected two errors into which she said he had
fallen, i.e., respecting Devachan and our companion planets. It is a perfectly
unthinkable proposition to say that she was not advised by the Masters when
writing the Secret Doctrine. I who saw many of the Masters' letters in
1888 in reference to the Secret Doctrine certainly cannot give up the
evidence of my inner and outer senses. I know as surely as I know any fact that
the same teachers were giving her in 1887 and 1888, as before, information for
that book, in black upon white, and I am certain they dictated the corrections
given in Secret Doctrine upon the points now before us. Evidence,
eye-sight, and tradition confirm it, for in 1876 to 1878, I was given by her the
same theories and the clue to the misunderstanding which a desire for
consistency as to mere words has now aroused.

Even in 1888 it was not the time to make the point precisely clear to the
public. Times have rule in occult teaching more than most readers - or writers -
of theosophical books suspect. But the clue was given, a broad hint was thrown
out. It is now the time when what I was told in 1876 and 1878 by the
Masters through H.P.B. may be told, since the prohibition put personally upon me
has been withdrawn.

The questions respecting Mars and Mercury - and I might add those which might
have been but were not put about Venus - did touch upon other questions on the
outskirts of higher initiations and which never are and never will be answered
before the right time. The statement in the Master's letter to Mr.
Sinnett that the questions put by the latter approached too near to secrets of
higher initiations did not, it is true, refer directly to these questions about
Mars and Mercury, but that does not alter the fact that all the questions then
propounded on this planetary subject touched the deli-
p.236
cate area; and whether Mr. Sinnett or anyone else liked it or not, attention had to be drawn off even at
the risk of creating a temporary confusion on the topic. But in 1888 time had
rolled on further, and now it is 1893, and nearer and nearer to another cycle.
The clue may now be given. It may be noticed, if readers will observe, that the
many questions raised in reference to Mars and Mercury served the additional
purpose of so distracting the attention of questioners that hardly any queries
were raised about the subject of "Cycles" on which the Masters had the
completest information but about which the Lodge is more careful to remain
silent than in respect to other points yet the cycles are more important and
have more bearing on life than Mars and Mercury.

Mars, Mercury, and Venus have a special and direct relation to this earth and
its invisible companions. Those three visible spheres have to do with certain
cosmic principles and lines of influence in and on the earth, while the
remaining visible planets of the Solar System have not the same relation. Read
it thus, as taught before Mr. Sinnett was in the T.S., and as repeated in the
Secret Doctrine:

The unseen companions of your earth are united with it in mass, though
different as to quality of substance. The visible planets of your Solar System
which have a relation special and peculiar to Earth are Mars. Mercury, and
Venus. But what that peculiar - nay wonderful - relation is do not ask, for we
will not tell you. If while the current is open you persist in the question.
you will arouse in yourselves a perplexity which the answer obtained will not
relieve. Is there not a spirit of irritation, of rage, and another of wisdom
and active judgment in man and Nature which may relate to visible planets
which are not an actual part of earth's own special family? This is as far as
we will now go.

The whole misunderstanding hinges on the word "relation." It was a word which
led up to many things. The presence of Mars and Mercury in the sky presents a
relation to the earth. yet they have another relation to it which
Saturn, Jupiter, and so on have not, while the latter bear the same relation to
us of proximity as do the first. Admit the proposed construction above given,
and at once there is complete concordance between Esoteric Buddhism and
Secret Doctrine as to esoteric
p.237
divulgements. But continue the controversy
to try and show that Esoteric Buddhism had not a single blunder, and
perplexities of all sorts impossible to relieve will spring up on every hand.
The Masters have commended the book, and well so, as it is made up from their
letters. But that does not prevent one making slight mistakes, as, for instance,
the one that all men stay in devachan for 1500 years. This is not the fact, nor
is it according to reason. And I make bold to say that it is not 1500 years
since I was last in devachan, but much less; and this assertion is made on
personal knowledge supported by confirmatory statement from the same Masters.
But it is true that the general run of the human race stays in devachan for the
average time of 1500 years of mortal time.

Mars, Mercury, Venus, then, are a part of our system in the sense of having
an extremely important relation and influence with the human race and its
planets, and having that in mind it was quite permissible for the teacher to
reply that Mars and Mercury belong to our system.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGEPath, September, 1893

MOON'S MYSTERY AND
FATE

PROBABLY no heavenly body has received as much attention from men in all ages
as our moon. Many causes contributed to this. The Moon is near us; she is a
remarkable and large object in the sky; she enlightens the night; she appears to
have much to do with man and his affairs. Omens, spells, wishes, oracles,
divination, traditions cluster around her during all time. It would be difficult
to find a scripture that does not exalt the moon. The Christian Bible says that
God ordained that the sun should rule the day and the moon the night. The Roman
Church depicts Mary the Mother of God holding the child while she stands upon
the crescent moon. The twelfth chapter of Revelations opens thus:

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun,
and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

Other religions are the same as this modern Hebraic one in giving the moon a
very great prominence.

Even science cannot escape the fascination. The brilliancy and nearness of
the moon and her many recurring changes all aid in fixing the attention of
science. Modern and ancient science alike unite in watching the night's great
light as she performs her journey round us. Nations regulate themselves and
their acts, religious and commercial, by the moon. Feast days of the church are
fixed more by the lunar than the solar calendar, for all the movable feasts
depend on the moon. Calendars rule commercial affairs in credits, obligations,
and settlements.
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From earliest times the calendar, ruled in fact by the moon's motion, has been
of immense interest to man. Periodically rulers of the earth try to reform the
calendar of days and months when it as periodically gets out of order. The
present arrangement of months with twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, and
thirty-one days was invented to make a calendar which would last some centuries
before another one will be needed, just because the moon's motion will not give
twelve regular months, but twelve regular ones and one small one of about six
days. And when the present style of reckoning was introduced, many communities
of men in Europe rebelled because they thought they had been deprived of some
actual days of life.

Caesar ordered a reformation of the calendar by attempting to use the sun, but
in time it fell into great confusion. Pope Gregory XIIl directed ten days to be
suppressed, and then found that the Julian calendar had an error which would
amount to three days in four hundred years - quite a serious matter. The
Gregorian year now prevails, except in Russia. But still the greater number of
men and the greater number of festivals depend On the moon and her motion. While
if we examine the records relating to superstition, we will find that whatever
may have been the place once held by the sun, it has been usurped by the moon,
leaving one nation distinctly worshipers of the Lord of Day.

Modern Theosophy, coming on the field as the uniter of all religions by
explaining the symbols and traditions of each, is not exempt from the mystery of
the moon. H. P. Blavatsky is our sole originator of a theory regarding the
satellite which one could not have invented with the most wonderful imagination.
She says her teachers told her, and leaves us to work out the details; but her
theory will bear investigation if taken as part of the whole evolutionary scheme
reported by her. If we had thought to escape from lunar dreams and puzzles we
were in error, for while she plainly asserts that the former body of the entity
now called Man's Earth is the very moon in our sky, the existence of a mystery
is as plainly declared. The first mystery which she claimed to reveal - and,
indeed, she
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first of every one states it - is that in a remote period, when
there was no earth, the moon existed as an inhabited globe, died, and at once
threw out into space all her energies, leaving nothing but the physical vehicle.
Those energies revolved and condensed the matter in space near by and produced
our earth; the moon, its parent, proceeding towards disintegration, but
compelled to revolve around her child, this earth. This gives us a use and
history for the moon.

But then the same messenger says that the "superstition" prevailing so long
and widely as to the moon's bad influence, as in insanity, in necromancy, and
the like, is due to the fact that the moon, being a corpse intimately associated
with earth, throws upon the latter, so very near to her, a stream of noxious
emanations which, when availed of by wicked and knowing persons, may be used for
man's injury. Then the same writer goes on to assert that six mysterious
doctrines or facts remain yet untold, and all relating to the moon.

It would be idle to speculate on these mysteries, for it has ever been found
that unless the Great Initiates speak, the general run of men can but modify,
enlarge, or intertwine by their fancy those facts and doctrines of which they
have heard. But as to the fate of the moon, H.P.B., speaking for those
Initiates, says plainly what is to become of our satellite.

In the first volume of Secret Doctrine, in a foot note on page 155 of
the first edition, she writes:

Both [Mercury and Venus] are far older than the Earth, and, before the
latter reaches her seventh Round her mother moon will have dissolved into thin
air, as the "Moons" of the other planets have, or have not, as the case may
be, since there are planets which have several moons - a mystery again
which no Oedipus of astronomy has solved.

This is extremely plain as to our moon, yet raises another mystery as to the
general subject of moons. If correspondence is a law of nature, as I firmly
believe, then it would be in accordance with it for the moon, considered as
earth's former body, to dissolve all away in course of time. And as evolution
proceeds with uniformity, the upward progress of our races and earth should be
marked by the gradual fading and final
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disappearance of the moon, as H.P.B.
says. It is likely that before our sixth round is ended, it being the round
relating to Buddhi as the vehicle of spirit, the body of the moon,
which was the vehicle for prana and astral body, will have disappeared.
Very probably one of the unrevealed mysteries has to do with the uses and
purposes of and for the whole mass of matter now constituting the moon's bulk.
But whatever those mysteries are, the fate of our satellite is very clearly
asserted, for the benefit of those who have confidence in H.P.B.'s teachers, and
who are willing to take the key of correspondence for the unlocking of the lock
of Nature.

WILLIAM BREHONPath, June, 1894

THREE GREAT IDEAS

AMONG many ideas brought forward through the theosophical movement there are
three which should never be lost sight of. Not speech, but thought, really rules
the world; so, if these three ideas are good let them be rescued again and again
from oblivion.

The first idea is, that there is a great Cause - in the sense of an
enterprise - called the Cause of Sublime Perfection and Human Brotherhood. This
rests upon the essential unity of the whole human family, and is a possibility
because sublimity in perfectness and actual realization of brotherhood on every
plane of being are one and the same thing. All efforts by Rosicrucian, Mystic,
Mason and Initiate are efforts toward the convocation in the hearts and minds of
men of the Order of Sublime Perfection.

The second idea is, that man is a being Who may be raised up to
perfection, to the stature of the Godhead, because he himself is God incarnate.
This noble doctrine was in the mind of Jesus, no doubt, when he said that we
must be perfect even as is the father in heaven. This is the idea of human
perfectibility. It will destroy the awful theory of inherent original sin which
has held and ground down the western Christian nations for centuries.

The third idea is the illustration, the proof, the high result of the
others. It is, that the Masters those who have reached up to what perfection
this period of evolution and this solar system will allow are living, veritable
facts, and not abstractions cold and distant. They are, as our old H. P. B. so
often
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said, living men. And she said, too, that a shadow of woe would
come to those who should say they were not living facts, who should assert that
"the Masters descend not to this plane of ours." The Masters as living facts and
high ideals will fill the soul with hope, will themselves help all who wish to
raise the human race.

Let us not forget these three great ideas.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE Irish Theosophist, February, 1895

PLAIN THEOSOPHICAL
TRACES

IN the Key to Theosophy the author says that at the last quarter of
each century there is always a distinct movement partaking of the nature of the
present Theosophical one, and this opinion is held by many Theosophists. Can
these efforts be traced? Did any people call themselves by the name
"Theosophist" one hundred years ago? Is it necessary that all such movements
should have been called in the past "Theosophical"? And if the claim that such
movements are started by the Adepts be true, is the present Society the only
body with which those beings work?

Taking up the last question first, we may turn to H.P.B. for authority. She
often said that while the T. S. movement of today was distinctly under the care
of the Adepts, it was not the only one through which effect was sought to be
made on the race-thought and ethics, but that in many different ways efforts
were constantly put forward. But still, she insisted, the T. S. wears the badge,
so to say, of the Eastern and Ancient Schools, and therefore has on it the
distinctive mark or what the Sanskrit calls lakshana - of the old and
united Lodge of Adepts. Inquiring further of reason and tradition, we find that
it would be against both to suppose that one single organization should be the
sole channel for the efforts of the Brotherhood. For if that Brotherhood has the
knowledge and power and objects attributed to it, then it must use every agency
which is in touch with humanity. Nor is it necessary to assume that the distinct
efforts made in each century, as contra-distinguished from the general current
of influence in all directions, should be called Theosophical. The Rosicrucians
are
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often supposed not to have existed at all as a body, but deep students have come
to the conclusion that they had an organization. They were Christian in their
phraseology and very deep mystics; and while they spoke of Holy Ghost, Sophia,
and the like, they taught Theosophy. They were obliged by the temper of the time
to suit themselves to the exigencies of the moment, for it would have been
extreme folly to destroy the hope of making any effect by rushing out in
opposition then. It is different now, when the air and the thought are free and
men are not burned by a corrupt church for their opinions. In one sense the T.
S. is the child of the Rosicrucian Society of the past. H.P.B. often said this,
and inquiry into their ideas confirms the declaration. The Rosicrucians were
Christian in the beginning and descendants afterwards of Christians. Even today
it is hinted that in one of the great cities of this new Republic there is a
great charity begun and carried on with money which has been given by
descendants of the Rosicrucians under inward impulse directed by certain of the
Adepts who were members of that body. For blood does count for something in
this, that until an Adept has passed up into the seventh degree he is often
moved in accordance with old streams of heredity. Or to put it another way, it
is often easier for an Adept to influence one who is in his direct physical line
than one who by consanguinity as well as psychic heredity is out of the family.

Looking into Germany of 200 years ago, we at once see Jacob Boehme. He was an
ignorant shoemaker, but illuminated from within, and was the friend and teacher
of many great and learned men. His writings stirred up the Church; they have
influence today. His life has many indications in it of help from the Masters of
Wisdom. A wide-spread effect from his writings can be traced through Germany and
over to France even after his death. He called himself a Christian, but he was
also named "Theosopher," which is precisely Theosophist, for it was only after
his day that people began to use "ist" instead of "er." Long after his death the
influence lasted. In the sixties many hundreds of his books were deliberately
sent all over the world. They were given free to libraries all over
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the United
States, and prepared the way for the work of the Theosophical Society in an
appreciable measure, though not wholly.

One hundred years ago there was such a movement in France, one of the agents of
which was Louis Claude, Count St. Martin, whose correspondence was called
"Theosophical correspondence." He refers to Boehme, and also to unseen but
powerful help which saved him from dangers during the Revolution. His books,
L'Homme de Desir and others, were widely read, and there are hints of a
Society which, however, was compelled to keep itself secret. At the same date
almost may be noted the great American Revolution influenced by Thomas Paine,
who, though reviled now by ignorant theologians, was publicly thanked by
Washington and the first Congress. This republic is a Theosophical effort, for
it gives freedom, and fortunately does not declare for any particular religion
in the clauses of its Constitution. Hints have been thrown out that the Adepts
had some hand in the revolt of the Colonies in 1775. In replying to Mr. Sinnett
some years ago, it was written by his Teacher that the Brotherhood dealt with
all important human movements, but no one could arraign the body at the bar and
demand proofs.

Bro. Buck wrote in 1889: "I have a volume entitled Theosophical Transactions
of the Philadelphian Society, London, 1697, and another dated entitled
Introduction to Theosophy or the Science of the Mystery of Christ, and in 1
856 Theosophical Miscellanies was issued."

About 1500 years ago Ammonius Saccas made a similar effort which was attended
with good results. He had almost the same platform as the T. S., and taught that
the aim of Jesus was to show people the truth in all religions and to restore
the ancient philosophy to its rightful seat. It is not at all against the theory
we are dealing with that the various efforts were not dubbed with the same name.
Those who work for the good of humanity, whether they be Adepts or not, do not
care for a mere name; it is the substantive effort they seek, and not a
vindication in the eyes of men of being first or original
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or anything else.

But we have only considered the Western World. All these centuries since A.D.1,
and long before that, Theosophical efforts were put forth in Asia, for we must
not forget that our theories, as well as those of Ammonius Saccas, are Eastern
in their origin. However much nations may at first ignore the heathen and
barbarian, they at last came to discover that it is frequently to the heathen
the Christian owes his religion and philosophy. So while Europe was enjoying the
delights of rude and savage life, the Easterns were elaborating, refining, and
perfecting the philosophy to which we owe so much. We who believe in the Adepts
as Brothers of Humanity must sup-pose that ignorance did not prevail in the
Brotherhood as to the effect sure to be one day produced in Europe whenever her
attention could be diverted from money-making and won to the great Eastern
stores of philosophy. This effect came about through England, Germany, and
France. Frenchmen first drew attention to the Upanishads, Germans went in
for Sanscrit, and England conquered India, so that her metaphysical mines could
be examined in peace. We have seen the result of all this more and more every
year. There is less ignorant, narrow prejudice against the "heathen," the masses
are beginning to know that the poor Hindu is not to be despised in the field of
thought, and a broader, better feeling has gradually developed. This is much
better than the glorification of any Brotherhood, and the Lodge is always aiming
at such results, for selfish pride, arrogance, and the love of personal dominion
have no place therein. Nor should they in our present Theosophical Society.

WILLIAM BREHONPath, August, 1892

POINTS OF AGREEMENT IN ALL RELIGIONS

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: Let me read you a few verses from some of
the ancient Scriptures of the world, from the old Indian books held sacred by
the Brahmans of Hindustan.(1)

(1) An address delivered April 17th, 1894, before the Parliament of Religions at
San Francisco, Calif., by William Q. Judge.

The Midwinter Fair at San Francisco had annexed to it a Religious parliament
modeled after the first great one of 1893 at Chicago. Dr. J. D. Buck and William
Q. Judge, the latter as General Secretary American Section, were officially
invited to address the Parliament at one of its sessions as representatives of
the Theosophical movement. Time was so short that all speakers were limited to
thirty minutes each; for that reason the address is not as full as it would be
had more time been granted. But the occasion once more showed the strength of
the T.S. movement.

What room for doubt and what room for sorrow is there in him who knows that
all spiritual beings are the same in kind and only differ from each other in
degree?

The sun does not shine there, nor the moon and the stars, nor these
lightnings and much less this fire. When He shines, everything shines after
Him; by His light all this is lighted.

Lead me from the unreal to the real!

Lead me from darkness to light!

Lead me from death to immortality!

Seeking for refuge, I go to that God who is the light of His own thoughts;
He who first creates Brahman and delivers the Vedas to him; who is without
parts, without actions, tranquil, without fault, the highest bridge to
immortality, like a fire that has consumed its fuel. - Mundaka Upanishad.

Such are some of the verses, out of many thousands, which are enshrined in
the ancient Hindu Vedas beloved by those we have called "heathen"; those are the
sentiments of the people we have called idolaters only.

As the representative of the Theosophical movement I am glad to be here, and
to be assigned to speak on what are the points of agreement in all religions. I
am glad because The-
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osophy is to be found in all religions and all sciences. We,
as members of the Theosophical Society, endorse to the fullest extent those
remarks of your chairman in opening, when he said, in effect, that a theology
which stayed in one spot without advancing was not a true theology, but that we
had advanced to where theology should include a study of man. Such a study must
embrace his various religions, both dead and living. And pushing that study into
those regions we must conclude that man is greatly his own reveler, has revealed
religion to himself, and therefore that all religions must include and contain
truth; that no one religion is entitled to a patent or exclusive claim upon
truth or revelation, or is the only one that God has given to man, or the only
road along which man can walk to salvation. If this be not true, then your
Religious Parliament is no Parliament, but only a body of men admiring
themselves and their religion. But the very existence of this Parliament
proclaims the truth of what I have said, and shows the need which the
Theosophical Society has for nineteen years been asserting, of a dutiful,
careful, and brotherly inquiry into all the religions of the world, for the
purpose of discovering what the central truths are upon which each and every
religion rests, and what the original fountain from which they have come. This
careful and tolerant inquiry is what we are here for today; for that the
Theosophical Society stands and has stood: for toleration, for unity, for the
final and irrevocable death of all dogmatism.

But if you say that religion must have been revealed, then surely God did not
wait for several millions of years before giving it to those poor beings called
men. He did not, surely, wait until He found one poor Semitic tribe to whom He
might give it late in the life of the race? Hence He must have given it in the
very beginning, and therefore all present religions must arise from one fount.

What are the great religions of the world and from whence have they come?
They are Christianity, Brahmanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism,
Zoroastrianism, and Mohammedanism. The first named is the youngest, with all its
war-
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ring sects, with Mormonism as an offshoot and with Roman Catholicism boldly
claiming sole precedence and truth.

Brahmanism is the old and hoary religion of India, a grown-up,
fully-developed system long before either Buddhism or Christianity was born. It
extends back to the night of time, and throws the history of religion far, far
beyond any place where modern investigators were once willing to place even the
beginning of religious thought. Almost the ancient of ancients, it stands in
far-off India, holding its holy Vedas in its hands, calmly waiting until the
newer West shall find time out of the pursuit of material wealth to examine the
treasures it contains.

Buddhism, the religion of Ceylon, of parts of China, of Burmah and Japan and
Tibet, comes after its parent Brahmanism. It is historically older than
Christianity and contains the same ethics as the latter, the same laws and the
same examples, similar saints and identical fables and tales relating to Lord
Buddha, the Saviour of Men. It embraces today, after some twenty-five hundred
years of life, more people than any other religion, for two-thirds of the human
family profess it.

Zoroastrianism also fades into the darkness of the past. It too teaches
ethics such as we know. Much of its ritual and philosophy is not understood, but
the law of brotherly love is not absent from it; it teaches justice and truth,
charity and faith in God, together with immortality. In these it agrees with
all, but it differs from Christianity in not admitting a vicarious salvation,
which it says is not possible.

Christianity of today is modern Judaism, but the Christianity of Jesus is
something different. He taught forgiveness, Moses taught retaliation, and that
is the law today in Christian State and Church. "An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth" is still the recognized rule, but Jesus taught the opposite. He
fully agreed with Buddha, who, preaching 500 years before the birth of the
Jewish reformer, said we must love one another and forgive our enemies. So
modern Christianity is not the religion of Jesus, but Buddhism and the religion
of Jesus accord with one another in calling for charity,
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complete tolerance,
perfect non-resistance, absolute self-abnegation.

If we compare Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism together on the points of
ritual, dogmas, and doctrines, we find not only agreement but a marvellous
similarity as well, which looks like an imitation on the part of the younger
Christianity. Did the more modern copy the ancient? It would seem probable. And
some of the early Christian Fathers were in the habit of saying, as we find in
their writings, that Christianity brought nothing new into the world, that it
existed from all time.

If we turn to ritual, so fully exemplified in the Roman Catholic Church, we
find the same practices and even similar clothing and altar arrangements in
Buddhism, while many of the prescribed rules for the altar and approaching or
leaving it are mentioned very plainly in far more ancient directions governing
the Brahman when acting as priest. This similarity was so wonderful in the
truthful account given by the Catholic priest Abbé Huc that the alarmed Church
first explained that the devil, knowing that Christianity was coming, went ahead
and invented the whole thing for the Buddhists by a species of ante facto
copying, so as to confound innocent Catholics therewith; and then they burned
poor Abbé Huc's book. As to stations of the cross, now well known to us, or the
rosary, confession, convents, and the like, all these are in the older religion.
The rosary was long and anciently used in Japan, where they had over one hundred
and seventy-two sorts. And an examination of the mummies of old Egypt reveals
rosaries placed with them in the grave, many varieties being used. Some of these
I have seen. Could we call up the shades of Babylon's priests, we should
doubtless find the same rituals there.

Turning to doctrines, that of salvation by faith is well known in
Christianity. It was the cause of a stormy controversy in the time of St. James.
But very strangely, perhaps, for many Christians, the doctrine is a very old
Brahmanical one. They call it "The Bridge Doctrine," as it is the great Bridge.
But with them it does not mean a faith in some particular
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emanation of God, but
God is its aim. God is the means and the way, and God the end of the faith; by
complete faith in God, without an intermediary, God will save you. They also
have a doctrine of salvation by faith in those great sons of God, Krishna, Rama,
and others; complete faith in either of those is for them a way to heaven, a
bridge for the crossing over all sins. Even those who were killed by Krishna, in
the great war detailed in the Ramayana, went straight to heaven because
they looked at him, as the thief on the cross looking at Jesus went to Paradise.
In Buddhism is the same doctrine of faith. The twelve great sects of Buddhism in
Japan have one called the Sect of the Pure Land. This teaches that Amitabha
vowed that any one who calls three times on his name would be born into his pure
Land of Bliss. He held that some men may be strong enough to prevail against the
enemy, but that most men are not, and need some help from another. This help is
found in the power of the vow of Amita Buddha, who will help all those who call
on his name. The doctrine is a modified form of vicarious atonement, but it does
not exclude the salvation by works which the Christian St. James gives out.

Heaven and Hell are also common to Christianity, Buddhism, and Brahmanism.
The Brahman calls it Swarga; the Buddhist, Devachan; and we, Heaven. Its
opposite is Naraka and Avitchi. But names apart, the descriptions are the same.
Indeed, the hells of the Buddhists are very terrible, long in duration and awful
in effect. The difference is that the heaven and hell of the Christian are
eternal, while the others are not. The others come to an end when the forces
which cause them are exhausted. In teaching of more than one heaven there is the
same likeness, for St. Paul spoke of more than a single heaven to one of which
he was rapt away, and the Buddhist tells of many, each being a grade above or
below some other. Brahman and Buddhist agree in saying that when heaven or hell
is ended for the soul, it descends again to rebirth. And that was taught by the
Jews. They held that the soul was originally pure, but sinned and had to wander
through rebirth until purified and fit to return to its source.

In priesthood and priestcraft there is a perfect agreement
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among all
religions, save that the Brahman instead of being ordained a priest is so by
birth. Buddha's priesthood began with those who were his friends and disciples.
After his death they met in council, and subsequently many councils were held,
all being attended by priests. Similar questions arose among them as with the
Christians, and identical splits occurred, so that now there are Northern and
southern Buddhism and the twelve sects of Japan. During the life of Buddha the
old query of admitting women arose and caused much discussion. The power of the
Brahman and Buddhist priests is considerable, and they demand as great
privileges and rights as the Christian ones.

Hence we are bound to conclude that dogmatically and theologically these
religions all agree. Christianity stands out, however, as peculiarly intolerant
- and in using the word "intolerant" I but quote from some priestly utterances
regarding the World's Fair parliament - for it claims to be the only true
religion that God has seen fit to reveal to man.

The great doctrine of a Savior who is the son of God - God himself - is not
an original one with Christianity. It is the same as the extremely ancient one
of the Hindus called the doctrine of the Avatar. An Avatar is one who comes down
to earth to save man. He is God incarnate. Such was Krishna, and such even the
Hindus admit was Buddha, for he is one of the great ten Avatars. The similarity
between Krishna or Cristna and Christ has been very often remarked. He came
5,000 years ago to save and benefit man, and his birth was in India, his
teaching being Brahmanical. He, like Jesus, was hated by the ruler, Kansa, who
desired to destroy him in advance, and who destroyed many sons of families in
order to accomplish his end, but failed. Krishna warred with the powers of
darkness in his battles with Ravana, whom he finally killed. The belief about
him was that he was the incarnation of God. This is in accord with the ancient
doctrine that periodically the Great Being assumes the form of man for the
preservation of the just, the establishment of virtue and order, and the
punishment of the wicked. Millions of man and women read
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every day of Krishna in
the Ramayana of Tulsi Das. His praises are sung each day and reiterated
at their festivals. Certainly it seems rather narrow and bigoted to assume that
but one tribe and one people are favored by the appearance among them of an
incarnation in greater measure of God.

Jesus taught a secret doctrine to his disciples. He said to them that he
taught the common people in stories of a simple sort, but that the disciples
could learn of the mysteries. And in the early age of Christianity that secret
teaching was known. In Buddhism is the same thing, for Buddha began with one
vehicle or doctrine, proceeded after to two, and then to a third. He also taught
a secret doctrine that doubtless agreed with the Brahmans who had taught him at
his father's court. He gave up the world, and later gave up eternal peace in
Nirvana, so that he might save men. In this the story agrees with that of Jesus.
And Buddha also resisted Mara, or the Devil, in the wilderness. Jesus teaches
that we must be as perfect as the Father, and that the kingdom of heaven is
within each. To be perfect as the Father we must be equal with him, and hence
here we have the ancient doctrine taught of old by the Brahmins that each man is
God and a part of God. This supports the unity of humanity as a spiritual whole,
one of the greatest doctrines of the time prior to Christianity, and now also
believed in Brahmanism.

That the universe is spiritual in essence, that man is a spirit and immortal,
and that man may rise to perfection, are universal doctrines. Even particular
doctrines are common to all the religions. Reincarnation is not alone in
Hinduism or Buddhism. It was believed by the Jews, and not only believed by
Jesus but he also taught it. For he said that John the Baptist was the
reincarnation of Elias "who was for to come." Being a Jew he must have had the
doctrines of the Jews, and this was one of them. And in Revelations we find the
writer says: "Him that overcometh I will make a pillar in the house of my God,
and he shall go out no more."

The words "no more" infer a prior time of going out.

The perfectibility of man destroys the doctrine of original sin, and it was
taught by Jesus, as I said. Reincarnation is a
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necessity for the evolution of
this perfection, and through it at last are produced those Saviors of the race
of whom Jesus was one. He did not deny similar privileges to others, but said to
his disciples that they could do even greater works than he did. So we find
these great Sages and Saviors in all religions. There are Moses and Abraham and
Solomon, all Sages. And we are bound to accept the Jewish idea that Moses and
the rest were the reincarnations of former persons. Moses was in their opinion
Abel the son of Adam; and their Messiah was to be a reincarnation of Adam
himself who had already come the second time in the person of David. We take the
Messiah and trace him up to David, but refuse, improperly, to accept the
remainder of their theory.

Descending to every-day-life doctrines, we find that of Karma, or that we
must account and receive for every act. This is the great explainer of human
life. It was taught by Jesus and Matthew and St. Paul. The latter explicitly
said:

"Brethren, be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth,
that also shall he reap."

This is Karma of the Brahman and Buddhist, which teaches that each life is
the outcome of a former life or lives, and that every man in his rebirths will
have to account for every thought and receive measure for the measure given by
him before.

In ethics all these religions are the same, and no new ethic is given by any.
Jesus was the same as his predecessor, Buddha, and both taught the law of love
and forgiveness. A consideration of the religions of the past and today from a
Theosophical standpoint will support and confirm ethics. We therefore cannot
introduce a new code, but we strive by looking into all religions to find a firm
basis, not due to fear, favor, or injustice, for the ethics common to all. This
is what Theosophy is for and what it will do. It is the reformer of religion,
the unifier of diverse systems, the restorer of justice to our theory of the
universe. It is our past, our present, and our future; it is our life, our
death, and our immortality.

Path, July, 1894

THINGS COMMON TO CHRISTIANITY
AND THEOSOPHY

THAT the Theosophical Society is not opposed to Christianity in either its
dogmatic or pure form is easily demonstrated. Our constitution forbids it and
the second object of the Society does also. The laws of our body say that there
shall be no crusade against any religion, tacitly excepting, of course, the few
degraded and bestial religions now in the world; the second object provides for
a full and free study of all relations without bias and without hatred or
sectarianism. And our history also, offering to view branch societies all over
the world composed of Christians, refutes the charge that the Society as such is
opposed to Christianity. One instance is enough, that of the well-know Scottish
Lodge, which states in its printed Transactions No. IX, "Theosophists who are
Christians (and such are the majority of the Scottish Lodge)...Therefore
Christians who are sincere and who know what Theosophy means must be
Theosophists..." If members of this Society have said to the contrary it has
been from ignorance and a careless thinking, for on the same ground we should
also be opposed to all other religions which have any formalism, as has
Christianity. Generally speaking, then, the Society is not and cannot be opposed
to Christianity, while it may lead to a denial of some of the men-made theories
of that Church.

But that is no more than branches of Christianity have always been doing, nor
is it as much a danger to formal Christianity as the new standards of criticism
which have crept into the Church.
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Nor can it be either that Theosophy as a whole is opposed to Christianity,
inasmuch as Theosophy is and must be the one truth underlying all religions that
have ever been among men. A calm and sincere examination of all the world's
religions reveals the fact that in respect to ethics, in respect to laws, in
respect to cosmogony and cosmology, the other religious books of the world are
the same in most respects as those of the Christians, and that the
distinguishing difference between the latter's religion and the others is that
it asserts an exclusiveness for itself and a species of doctrinal intolerance
not found in the rest.

If we take the words and the example of Jesus as the founder of Christianity,
it is at once seen that there is no opposition at all between that form of
religion and Theosophy. Indeed, there is the completest agreement. New ethics
are not brought forward by Theosophy, nor can they be, as ethics of the right
sort must always be the same. In his sermons and sayings are to be found the
ethics given out by Buddha and by all other great teachers of all time. These
cannot be altered, even though they hold up to weak mortals an ideal that is
very difficult to live up to and sometimes impossible to realize in daily life.
That these rules of conduct laid down by Jesus are admittedly hard to follow is
shown in the behavior of Christian states toward each other and in the
declarations of their high prelates that the religion of Jesus cannot be the
basis for diplomatic relations nor for the state government. Hence we find that
the refuge from all this adopted by the theologian is in the statement that,
although other and older religions had moral truth and similar ethics to those
of Jesus, the Christian religion is the only one wherein the founder asserted
that he was not merely a teacher from God but was also at the same time God
himself; that is, that prior to Jesus a great deal of good was taught, but God
did not see fit until the time of Jesus to come down among men into incarnation.
Necessarily such a declaration would seem to have the effect of breeding
intolerance from the high and exclusive nature of the claim made. But an
examination of Brahmanism shows that Rama
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was also God incarnate among men,
though there the doctrine did not arouse the same sum of intolerance among its
believers. So it must be true that it is not always a necessary consequence of
such a belief that aggressive and exclusive intolerance will grow up.

The beliefs and teachings of Christianity are not all supportable by the
words of Jesus, but his doctrines are at all times in accord with Theosophy.
There is certainly a wide difference between the command of Jesus to be poor and
have neither staff nor money and the fact of the possession by the Church of
vast sums of money and immense masses of property, and with the drawing of high
salaries by prelates, and with the sitting of prelates among the rulers of the
earth upon thrones, and in the going to war and the levying of taxes by the Pope
and by other religious heads. The gathering of tithes and enforcement of them by
law and by imprisonment at the instance of the Protestant clergy are not at all
consistent with the words of Jesus. But all of the foregoing inconsistent
matters are a part of present Christianity, and if in those respects a
difference from or opposition to them should seem to arise from Theosophical
teachings we must admit it, but cannot be blamed. If we go back to the times of
the early Christians and compare that Christianity with the present form, we see
that opposition by Theosophy could hardly be charged, but that the real
opposition then would be between that early form of the religion and its present
complexion. It has been altered so much that the two are scarcely recognizable
as the same. This is so much so that there exists a Christian sect today called
"Early Christian."

Every one has at all times a right to object to theological interpretations
if they are wrong, or if they distort the original teaching or introduce new
notions. In this respect there is a criticism by Theosophy and Theosophists. But
thinkers in the world not members of this Society and not leaning to Theosophy
do the same thing. Huxley and Tyndall and Darwin and hosts of others took ground
that by mere force of truth and fact went against theological views, Galileo
also, seeing that the earth was round and moved, said so, but the theolo
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gian,
thinking that such belief tended to destroy the power of the church and to upset
biblical theories, made him recant at the risk of his liberty and life. If the
old views of theology were still in force with the state behind them, the
triumphs of science would have been few and we might still be imagining the
earth to be flat and square and the sun revolving about it.

Theosophical investigation discloses to the student's view the fact that in
all ages there have appeared great teachers of religion and that they all had
two methods of instruction. One, or that for the masses of people, was plain and
easy to understand; it was of ethics, of this life and of the next, of
immortality and love; it always gave out the Golden Rule. Such a teacher was
Buddha, and there can be no controversy on the fact that he died centuries
before the birth of Jesus. He declared his religion to be that of love. Others
did the same. Jesus came and taught ethics and love, with the prominent
exception of his prophecy that he came to bring a sword and division as recorded
in the Gospels. There is also an incident which accents a great difference
between him and Buddha; it is the feast where he drank wine and also made some
for others to drink. In regard to this matter, Buddha always taught that all
intoxicating liquors were to be rigidly abstained from. The second method was
the secret or Esoteric one, and that Jesus also used. We find his disciples
asking him why he always used easy parables with the people, and he replied that
to the disciples he taught the mysteries, or the more recondite matters of
religion. This is the same as prevailed with the older saints. Buddha also had
his private teachings to certain disciples. He even made a distinction among his
personal followers, making classes in their ranks, to one of which he gave the
simplest of rules, to the other the complex and difficult. So he must have
pursued the ancient practise of having two sects of teachings, and this must
have been a consequence of his education.

At twelve years of age he came to the temple and disputed with the learned
rabbis on matters of law. Thus he must have known the law; and what that law was
and is it is necessary to ask. It was the law of Moses, full of the most
technical
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and abstruse things, and not all to be found in the simple words of
the books. The Hebrew books are a vast mine of cypher designedly so constructed
and that should be borne in mind by all students. It ought to be known to
Christians, but is not, as they prefer not to go into the mysteries of the Jews.
But Jesus knew it. His remark that "not one jot or tittle of the law would pass"
show this. Most people read this simply as rhetoric, but it is not so. The jots
and tittles are a part of the books and go to make up the cypher of the Cabala
or the hidden meaning of the law. This is a vast system of itself, and was not
invented after the time of Jesus. Each letter is also a number, and thus every
word can be and is, according to a well-known rule, turned into some other word
or into a number. Thus one name will be a part of a supposed historical story,
but when read by the cypher it becomes a number of some cycle or event or a sign
of the Zodiac or something else quite different from the mere letters. Thus the
name of Adam is composed of three consonants, A,D, and M. These mean by the
system of the cypher respectively, "Adam, David, and Messiah." The Jews also
held that Adam for his first sin would have to and did reincarnate as David and
would later come as Messiah. Turning to Revelations we find traces of the same
system in the remarks about the numbers of the beast and the man. The Cabala or
hidden law is of the highest importance, and as the Christian religion is a
Hebraic one it cannot be properly studied or understood without the aid given by
the secret teaching. And the Cabala is not dead nor unknown, but has many
treatises written on it in different languages. By using it, we will find in the
Old Testament and in the records of Jesus a complete and singular agreement with
Theosophy.

Examine for instance, the Theosophical teachings that there is a secret of
esoteric doctrine, and the doctrine of inability of man to comprehend God. This
is the Brahmanical doctrine of the unapproachableness of Parabrahm. In Exodus
there is a story which to the profane is absurd, of God telling Moses that he
could not see Him. It is in Exodus xxxiii, 20, where God says Moses could see
him from behind only. Treat this by the rule of the Cabala and it is plain, but
read it on the
p.261
surface and you have nonsense. In Exodus iii, 14, God says that
his name is "I am that I am." this is AHYH ASHR AHYH, which has to be turned
into its numerical value, as each letter is also a number. Thus A is 1, H is 5,
Y is 10, H is 5. There being two words the same, they add up 42. The second word
is A, 1; SH, 300; R, 200 making 501, which added to 42 gives 543 as the number
of "I am that I am." Now Moses by the same system makes 345 or the reverse of
the other, by which the Cabala shows God meant Moses to know God by his reverse
or Moses himself. To some this may appear fanciful, but as it is the method on
which these old books are constructed it must be known in order to understand
what is not clear and to remove from the Christian books the well-sustained
charge of absurdity and sometimes injustice and cruelty shown on their face. So
instead of God's being made ridiculous by attributing to him such a remark as
that Moses could only "see his hinder parts," we perceive that under the words
is a deep philosophical tenet corresponding to those of Theosophy, that
Parabrahm is not to be known and that Man is a small copy of God through which
in some sense or in the reverse we may see God.

For the purposes of this discussion along the line of comparison we will have
to place Christianity on one side and put on the other as representing the whole
body of Theosophy, so far as revealed, the other various religions of the world,
and see what, if anything, is common between them. First we see that
Christianity, being the younger, has borrowed its doctrines from other
religions. It is now too enlightened an age to say, as the Church did when Abbe
Huc brought back his account of Buddhism from Tibet, that either the devil or
wicked men invented the old religions so as to confuse and confute the
Christian. Evidently, no matter how done, the system of the Christian is mixed
Aryan and Jewish. This could not be otherwise, since Jesus was a Jew, and his
best disciples and the others who came after like Paul were of the same race and
faith. The early Fathers also, living as they did in Eastern lands, got their
ideas from what they found about them.
p.262
Next a very slight examination will disclose the fact that the ritual of the
Christian Church is also borrowed. Taken from all nations and religions, not one
part of it is either of this age or of the Western hemisphere The Brahmans have
an extensive and elaborate ritual, and so have the Buddhists. The rosary, long
supposed by Catholics to be a thing of their own, has existed in Japan for
uncounted years, and much before the West had any civilization the Brahman had
his form of rosary. The Roman Catholic Christian sees the priest ring the bell
at a certain part of the Mass, and the old Brahman knows that when he is praying
to God he must also ring a bell to be found in every house as well as in the
temple. This is very like what Jesus commanded. He said that prayer must be in
secret, that is, where no one can hear; the Brahman rings the small bell so that
even if ears be near they shall not hear any words but only the sound of the
bell. The Christian has images of virgin and child; the same thing is to be
found in Egyptian papyri and in carved statues of India made before the
Christian came into existence. Indeed, all the ritual and observance of the
Christian churches may be found in the mass of other religions with which for
the moment we are making a rough comparison.

Turning now to doctrine, we find again complete agreement with the dogmatic
part of Christianity in these older religions. Salvation by faith is taught by
some priests. That is the old Brahmanical theory, but with the difference that
the Brahman one calls for faith in God as the means, the end, and the object of
faith. The Christian adds faith in the son of God. A form of Japanese Buddhism
said to be due to Amitabha says that one may be saved by complete faith in Amita
Buddha, and that even if one prays but three times to Amita he will be saved in
accordance with a vow made by that teacher. Immortality of soul has ever been
taught by the Brahmans. Their whole system of religion and of cosmogony is
founded on the idea of soul and of the spiritual nature of the universe. Jesus
and St. Paul taught the unity of spiritual beings-or men-when they said that
heaven and the spirit of God were in us, and the doctrine of Unity is one of the
oldest and most
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important of the Brahmanical scheme. The possibility of arriving
at perfection by means of religion and science combined so that a man becomes
godlike-or the doctrine of Adepts and Mahatmas as found in Theosophy-is common
to Buddhism and Brahmanism, and is not contrary to the teachings of Jesus. He
said to his disciples that they could if they would do even greater works-or
"miracles"-than he did. To do these works one has to have great knowledge and
power. The doctrine assumes the perfectibility of humanity and destroys the
theory of original sin; but far from being out of concordance with the religion
of Jesus, it is in perfect accord. He directed his followers to be perfect even
as the Father in heaven is. They could not come up to that command by any
possibility unless man has the power to reach to that high state. The command is
the same as is found in the ancient Aryan system. Hence, then, whether we look
broadly over the field at mere ritual dogma or at ethics, we find the most
complete accord between Theosophy and true Christianity.

But now taking up some important doctrines put forward by members of the
Theosophical Society under their right of free investigation and free speech,
what do we discover? Novelty, it is true, to the mind of the western man
half-taught about his own religion, but nothing that is uncommon to
Christianity. Those doctrines may be, for the present, such as Reincarnation or
rebirth over and over again for the purpose of discipline and gain, for reward,
for punishment, and for enlargement of character; next Karma, or exact justice
or compensation for all thoughts and acts. These two are a part of Christianity,
and may be found in the Bible.

Reincarnation has been regarded by some Christian ministers as essential to
the Christian religion. Dr. Edward Beecher said he saw its necessity, and the
Rev. Wm. Alger has recorded his view to the same effect. If a Christian insists
upon the belief in Jesus, who came only eighteen centuries ago after millenniums
had passed and men had died out of the faith by millions, it will be unjust for
them to be condemned for a failure to believe a doctrine they never heard of;
hence the
p.264
Christian may well say that under the law of reincarnation, which was
upheld by Jesus, all those who never heard of Jesus will be reborn after his
coming in A.D. I, so as to accept the plan of salvation.

In the Gospels we find Jesus referring to this doctrine as if a well
established one. When it was broached by the disciples as the possible reason
for the punishment by blindness from birth of a man of the time. Jesus did not
convert the doctrine, as he would have done did he see in his wisdom as Son of
God that it was pernicious. But at another time he asserted that John the
Baptist was the reincarnation of Elias the ancient prophet. This cannot be wiped
out of the books, and is a doctrine as firmly fixed in Christianity, though just
now out of favor, as is any other. The paper by Prof. Landsberg shows you what
Origen, one of the greatest of the Christian Fathers, taught on preëxistence of
souls. This theory naturally suggests reincarnation on this earth, for it is
more natural to suppose the soul's wanderings to be here until all that life can
give has been gained, rather than that the soul should wander among other
planets or simply fall to this abruptly, to be as suddenly raised up to heaven
or thrown down to hell.

The next great doctrine is Karma. This is the religion of salvation by works
as opposed to faith devoid of works. It is one of the prime doctrines of Jesus.
By "by their works ye shall know them," he must have meant that faith without
works is dead. The meaning of Karma literally is "works," and the Hindus
apply it not only to the operations of nature and of the great laws of nature in
connection with man's reward and punishment, but also to all the different works
that man can perform. St. James insists on the religion of works. He says that
true religion is to visit the fatherless and the widows and to keep oneself
unspotted from the world. St. Matthew says we shall be judged for every act,
word, and thought. This alone is possible under the doctrine of Karma. The
command of Jesus to refrain from judgment or we should ourselves be judged is a
plain statement of Karma, as is, too, the rest of
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the verse saying that what we
mete out shall be given back to us. St. Paul, following this, distinctly states
the doctrine thus: "Brethren, be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever
a man soweth, that also shall he reap." The word "whatsoever" includes every act
and thought, and permits no escape from the consequences of any act. A clearer
statement of the law of Karma as applied to daily life could hardly be made.
Again, going to Revelations, the last words in the Christian book, we read all
through it that the last judgment proceeds on the works-in other words, on the
Karma-of men. It distinctly asserts that in the vision, as well as in the
messages to the Churches, judgment passes for works.

We therefore must conclude that the religion of Jesus is in complete accord
with the chief doctrines of Theosophy; it is fair to assume that even the most
recondite of theosophical theories would not have been opposed by him. Our
discussion must have led us to the conclusion that the religion of Karma, the
practise of good works, is that in which the religion of Jesus agrees with
Theosophy, and that alone thereby will arrive the longed-for day when the great
ideal of Universal Brotherhood will be realized, and will furnish the common
ground on which all faiths may stand and from which every nation may work for
the good and the perfection of the human family.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
Paper read before
Aryan (N.Y.) T.S., 1894

THEOSOPHY IN THE
CHRISTIAN BIBLE

I HAVE been asked to say a few more words on the subject of Theosophy in the
Christian Bible; that is, I have been asked to show what Theosophical doctrines
can be found in the Christian books.(1)(1) An address made by Wm. Q. Judge at the Parliament of Religions, World's
Fair of 1893, Chicago, Illinois.
One of the Theosophical doctrines is the doctrine of Karma; that is, exact
justice ruling in the spiritual as well as in the physical; the exact carrying
out of effect from cause in the spiritual nature of man, the moral nature as
well as in the physical world. That is, that every man is ruled in his life, not
by a vengeful and partial God, but by justice. This life is just; whether one is
miserable or happy, whether he is poor or rich, it is just. Where is this
doctrine found in the Christian Bible, this doctrine that as ye have sown so
shall ye reap? That is, having lived before in this world you have made causes
which bring about today the life you lead now, which have made the
characteristics that you have, which made you what you are now, and have plunged
you into a living hell or into a happy heaven today. We say this doctrine has
not of late been taught in Christianity; but it is in the books of the
Christians and it ought to have been taught, it would have been profitable had
it been expounded. Now, where can it be found?

Does not Jesus say, among other things, you should not judge others? Why?
Because if you do you will be judged yourself. What you mete out to others will
be meted out to
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you. That is, what men do to others will be done to themselves.
Where and when is this to be done? When is the measure to be meted out if not in
this life or some other? St. Paul says: "Brethren, be not deceived, God is not
mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." Do not these
quotations prove that in St. Paul and in the words of Jesus can be found this
doctrine of Karma: that as you sow so shall you reap? That your circumstances
now are the result of your own acts? This is the doctrine which is the most
prominent in the Theosophical field. I call it Theosophical, not because the
members teach it, nor from its presence in our literature, but because it is
found in the religion of every nation; that is why it is Theosophical. But you
have been taught that you must be good or you will be punished. In the West you
are told you will be rewarded and punished in this life and in the next. But men
are not punished in this life. Today thousands of men live lives of luxury,
strife, and crime, but they are not punished here, and, according to the
teachings of Christianity, they stand a pretty good chance of escaping
punishment hereafter if they only believe. We see that many are not rewarded who
are good, but are often born into misery.

The doctrine of reincarnation is taught in the Christian Bible, that is, that
you will be born over and over again in this world according to your destiny, to
follow the effects of causes you yourself have put in motion in whatever life.
Where is that found? In the mouth of Jesus; and certainly if Jesus, the founder
of Christianity, has stated this, has any man or any body of men, has any person
any right to say that it is not true? I deny their right, and I say that
Christianity has been deprived by theologians of a doctrine which Jesus himself
declared, when reincarnation is taken away from it. We say that the doctrine is
in the Gospels. One day they brought to Jesus a man who was born blind and asked
him why was this man born blind; was it for some sin he had committed or those
his parents committed? Now, how could a man be born blind for a sin he had
himself committed unless he had lived before that time to commit it? This was a
doc-
p.268
trine believed in at that day. The Jews believed it and Jesus was a Jew. He
did not deny the doctrine on that occasion. He only said, "Not for that reason."
If the doctrine were wrong, certainly Jesus, as the Son of God, would not only
have denied it, but he would have said, "The doctrine you enunciate is false."
He said nothing of the kind. At another time he himself declared the doctrine,
and he asked his disciples, "Whom do men think that I am?", meaning and
referring to what was believed at that time, that great sages were born over and
over again for the enlightenment of mankind. They call them Avatars in the East.
They had an idea great sages and prophets would come back. Will you tell me how
such men then could be reborn at all unless under natural law and unless such
law governs every man? So Jesus, referring to this idea, said to his disciples:
"Whom do men think that I am?" And they said: "Some men think that you are
Elias, who was for to come." St. John had been killed just then by the ruler of
Judea, and Jesus said to them that Elias had already come back in the person of
John and the rulers had killed him, not knowing he was a reincarnation of Elias.
So in one case he did not deny and in the other he explicitly asserted the
doctrine. And if we take this view we know what he meant when he said to
Nicodemus that a man must be born again. He meant not only the regeneration of
the soul, but reborn into the body again; that is, that man is a soul who comes
into a house to live life after life, and he must go from house to house until
he has learned the whole architecture of human life and is able to build a
perfect house. In Revelations, the last word of all the books, we find the great
speaker writing that he heard the voice of God saying to him that him who overcometh the flesh and the devil, the world and sin, "I shall make a pillar in
the house of my Father and he shall go out no more." Does not that mean he had
gone out before? The old fathers in the early ages of Christianity taught that
if we triumphed over the flesh and the devil, the world and sin, God would make
each one a pillar in the house of his father and he would not have to go out
again. That is the doctrine of reincarnation.
p.269
Then if you will look at the history of the Christian Church you find that the
doctrine was taught for five hundred years, and not until the Council of
Constantinople was it rejected. At that time it was turned out by ignorant
monks, and since then it has not been taught by the teachers, but it is in the
Christian books, and to these Christian books we appeal. I say these very
doctrines are in many other places found there. Another doctrine is that man is
not merely a body, but is a composite being of many divisions. St. Paul taught
we have a spiritual body as well as a material body, that we are a spiritual
body and a physical body and spirit. That will bring in every one of the seven
principles of the Theosophical category. So we say, all through the Christian
books, in the Old Testament and in the New, we may find the great doctrines of
Theosophy, by which I mean the great universal ideas of unity, of universal
brotherhood, of strict justice and no favoritism, of reincarnation, and of the
composite nature of man, which permeate every religion as well as the books of
the Christians, both old and new.

JACOB BOEHME AND THE
SECRET DOCTRINE

JACOB Boehme (or as some say Behmen) was a German mystic and spiritualist who
began to write in the 17th century. In his works he inserted a picture of an
angel blowing a trumpet, from which issued these words: "To all Christians,
Jews, Turks and Heathens, to all the nations of the earth this Trumpet sounds
for the last time." In truth it was a curious emblem, but he, the author, was a
mystic, and as all experience shows, the path of the mystic is a strange one. It
is, as Job says, a path which the "vulture knoweth not." Even as a bird cleaves
the eternal ether, so the mystic advances on a path nor ordinarily manifest, a
way which must be followed with care, because like the Great Light, which
flashes forth and leaves only traces when it returns again to its centre, only
indications are left for those who come after seeking the same spiritual wisdom.
Yet by these "traces," for such they are called in the Kabbala, the way can be
discerned, and the truth discovered.

Boehme was poor, of common birth, and totally devoid of ordinary education.
He was only a shoemaker. Yet from the mind and out of the mouth of this
unlettered man came mighty truths.

It would be idle to inquire into the complications of Karma which condemned
him to such a life as his appeared to be. It must have been extremely curious,
because though he had grasped the truth and was able to appreciate it, yet at
the same time he could not give it out in its perfection. But he performed his
work, and there can be no manner of doubt
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about his succeeding incarnation. As
Krishna says in the Bhagavad-Gita, he has been already or will shortly be "born
into a family of wise devotees"; and thence "he will attain the highest walk."

His life and writings furnish another proof that the great
wisdom-religion-the Secret Doctrine-has never been left without a witness. Born
a Christian, he nevertheless saw the esoteric truth lying under the moss and
crust of centuries, and from the Christian Bible extracted for his purblind
fellows those pearls which they refused to accept. But he did not get his
knowledge from the Christian Scriptures only. Before his internal eye the
panorama of real knowledge passed. His interior vision being open he could see
the things he had learned in a former life, and at first not knowing what they
were was stimulated by them to construe his only spiritual books in the esoteric
fashion. His brain took cognizance of the Book before him, but his spirit aided
by his past, and perchance by the living guardians of the shinning lamp of
truth, could not but read them aright.

His work was called "The Dawning of the Eternal Day." In this he endeavors to
outline the great philosophy. He narrates the circumstances and reasons for the
angelic creation, the fall of its chief three hierarchies, and the awful effects
which thereupon fell upon Eternal Nature. Mark this, not upon man-for he was not
yet-but upon the eternal Nature, that is BRAHM. Then he says that these effects
came about by reason of the unbalancing of the seven equipoised powers of
forces of the Eternal Nature or Brahm. That is to say, that so long as the seven
principles of Brahm were in perfect poise, there was no corporeal or manifested
universe. So in the Bhagavad-Gita we find that Krishna tells Arjuna that "after
the lapse of a thousand ages (or Night of Brahm) all objects of developed matter
come forth from the non-developed principle. At the approach of that day they
emanate spontaneously." (Bhagavad-Gita, Chap. 8. ) Such is the teaching of the
Secret Doctrine.

And again Boehme shows the duality of the Supreme Soul.
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For he says in his
work "Psychologia Vera cum Supplemento" that these two eternal principles of
positive and negative, the yea and the nay of the outspeaking
Supreme One, together constitute eternal nature, -not the dark world alone;
which is termed the "root of nature,-" the two being as it were combined in
perfect indissoluble union.

This is nothing else but Purush and Prakriti, or taken together, what is
referred to in the Bhagavad-Gita where it is said: "But there is another
invisible, eternal existence, superior to this visible one, which does not
perish when all things perish. It is called invisible and indivisible. This is
my Supreme Abode."

Clearly the Supreme Abode could never be in Purush alone, nor in
Prakriti alone, but in both when indissolubly united.

This scheme is adhered to all through this great philosopher's works, no
matter whether he is speaking of the great Universe or macrocosm, or of its
antitype in man or microcosm. In "De Tribus Principiis" he treats of the three
principles or worlds of Nature, describing its eternal birth, its seven
properties, and the two co-eternal principles; and furthermore in "De
Triplici Vita Hominis" he gives the three-fold life of man from which the
seven is again deduced.

In "De Electione Gratia" he goes into a subject that often proves a stumbling
block to many, and that is the inevitableness of evil as well as of good.
From this it is easy to pass to a contemplation of one of the difficult points
in occultism as shown in the Secret Doctrine, that nothing is evil, and that
even if we admit evil or wickedness in man, it is of the nature of the quality
or guna, which in the Bhagavad-Gita is denominated raja-foulness or bad action.
Even this is better than the indifferent action that only leads to death. Even
from wickedness may and does come forth spiritual life, but from indifferent
action comes only darkness, and finally death.

Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita, Chap. IV: "There are three kinds of action:
first, that which is of the nature of
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Satyam, or true action; second,
that which is of the nature of Raja, or bad action; third, that which is
of the nature of Tamas, or indifferent action." He then says: "Although
thou wert the greatest of all offenders, thou shalt be able to cross the gulf of
sin in the bark of spiritual wisdom"; and a little farther on "The ignorant and
man without faith, whose spirit is full of doubt, is lost and cannot enjoy
either world." And in another chapter in describing Himself, he says that he is
not only the Buddha, but also is the most evil of mankind or the Asura.

This is one of the most mystical parts of the whole secret doctrine. While
Boehme has touched on it sufficiently to show that he had a memory of it, he did
not go into the most occult details. It has to be remembered that the
Bhagavad-Gita, and many other books treating on the Secret Doctrine, must be
regarded from seven points of view; and that imperfect man is not able to look
at it from the centre, which would give the whole seven points at once.

Boehme wrote about thirty different treatise, all of them devoted to great
subjects, portions of the Secret Doctrine.

Curiously enough the first treated of the "Dawn of the Eternal Day," and the
second was devoted to an elucidation of "The Three Principles of Man." In the
latter is really to be found a sevenfold classification similar to that which
Mr. Sinnett propounded in "Esoteric Buddhism."

He held that the greatest obstacle in the path of man is the astral or
elementary power, which engenders and sustain this world.

Then he talks of "tinctures," which we may call principles. According to him
there are two principles ones, the watery, and the igneous. These ought to be
united in Man; and they ardently seek each other continually, in order to be
identified with Sophia or Divine Wisdom. Many Theosophists will see in this a
clue not only to the two principles-or tinctures-which ought to be united man,
but also to a law which obtains in many of the phenomena of magic. But even if I
were able, I should not speak on this more clearly.
p.274
For many inquirers the greatest interest in these works will be found in his
hypothesis as to the birth of the material Universe. On the evolution of man
from spirit into matter he has much more than i could hope to glance at. In
nearly all of it he was outlining and illustrating the Secret Doctrine. The
books indicated are well worthy of study not only by Western but also by Eastern
metaphysicians.

Let us add a few sentences to support this hypothesis from Count Saint
Martin, who was a devoted student of these works.

"Jacob Boehme took for granted the existence of an Universal Principle; he
was persuaded that everything is connected in the immense chain of truths, and
that the Eternal Nature reposed on seven principles or bases, which he sometimes
calls powers, forms, spiritual wheels, sources, and fountains, and that those
seven bases exist also in this disordered material nature, under constraint. His
nomenclature, adopted for these fundamental relations, ran thus: The first
astringency, the second gall or bitterness, the third anguish,
the fourth fire, the fifth light, the sixth sound, and the
seventh he called BEING or the thing itself."

The reader may have begun to think the author did not rightly comprehend the
first six but his definition of the seventh shows he was right throughout, and
we may conclude the real meanings are concealed under these names.

"The third principle, anguish, attenuates the astringent one,
turns it into water, and allows a passage to fire, which was shut up in
the astringent principle."

There are in this many suggestions and a pursuit of them will repay the
student.

"Now the Divine Sophia caused a new order to take birth in the centre of our
system, and there burned our sun; from that do come forth all kinds of
qualities, forms and powers. This centre is the Separator." It is well known
that from the sun was taken by the ancients all kinds of power; and if we
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mistake not, the Hindus claim that when the Fathers enter into Para-Nirvana,
their accumulated goodness pours itself out on the world through the "Door of
the Sun."

The Bhagavad-Gita says, that the Lord of all dwells in the region of the
heart, and again that this Lord is also the Sun of the world.

"The earth is a condensation of the seven primordial principles, and by the
withdrawal of eternal light this became a dark valley." It is taught in the
East, that this world is a valley and that we are in it, our bodies reaching to
the moon, being condensed to hardness at the point where we are on the earth
thus becoming visible to the eye of man. There is a mystery in this statement,
but not such an one as cannot be unravelled.

Boehme proceeds: "When the light mastered the fire at the place of the sun,
the terrible shock of the battle engendered an igneous eruption by which there
shot forth from the sun a stormy and frightful flash of fire-Mars. Taken captive
by light it assumed a place, and there it struggles furiously, a pricking goad,
whose office is to agitate all nature, producing reaction. It is the gall of
nature. The gracious, amiable Light, having enchained unerupted Mars, proceeded
by its own power to the bottom or end of the rigidity of Nature, when unable to
proceed further it stopped, and became corporeal; remaining there it warms that
place, and although a valet in Nature, it is the source of sweetness and the
moderator of Mars.

"Saturn does not originate from the sun, but was produced from the severe
astringent anguish of the whole body of this Universe. Above Jupiter the sun
could not mitigate the horror, and out of that arose Saturn, who is the opposite
of meekness, and who produces whatever of rigidity there is in creatures,
including bones, and what in moral nature corresponds thereto." (This is all the
highest astrology, from one who had no knowledge of it.) "As in the Sun is
the heart of life, so by Saturn commenceth all corporeal nature. Thus in
these two resides the power of the whole universal body, and without
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their power
there could be no creation nor any corporification.

"Venus originates in effluvia from the Sun. She lights the unctuosity
of the water of the Universe, penetrates hardness, and enkindles love."

"Mercury is the chief worker in the planetary wheel; he is sound, and
wakes up the germs in everything. His origin, the triumph of Light over
Astringency (in which sound was shut up silent), set free the sound by the
attenuation of the astringent power."

It is certain that if this peculiar statement regarding Mercury is
understood, the student will have gained a high point of knowledge. A seductive
bait is here held out to those striving disciples who so earnestly desire to
hold converse with the elemental world. But there is no danger, for all the
avenues are very secret and only the pure can prevail in the preliminary steps.

Boehme says again: "The Mercury is impregnated and fed continually by the
solar substance; that in it is found the knowledge of what was in the order
above, before Light had penetrated to the solar centre."

As to the Moon, it is curious to note that he says, "she was produced from
the sun itself, at the time of his becoming material, and that the moon is his
spouse." Students of the story of Adam being made to sleep after his creation
and before coats of skin were given, when Eve was produced from his side, will
in this a strong hint.

The above is not by any means a complete statement of Boehme's system. In
order to do justice to it, a full analysis of all his works should be
undertaken. However, it is sufficient if thoughtful minds who have not read
Boehme, shall turn to him after reading this, or if but one earnest reader of
his works, or seeker after wisdom, shall receive even a hint that may lead to a
clearing up of doubts, or to the acquisition of one new idea. Count Saint Martin
continually read him; and
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the merest glance at the "Theosophic Correspondence"
or, "Man-His Nature, &., " of Saint Martin will show that from that study he
learned much. How much more then will the Western mind be aided by the light
shed on both by the lamp of Theosophical teachings.

"Let the desire of the pious be fulfilled." WILLIAM
Q. JUDGE

Theosophist, April, 1886.

A BUDDHIST DOCTRINE

THERE are twelve principal Buddhist sects in Japan. These are: Ku-Sha-Shiu,
Jo-Jitsu-Shiu, Ris-Shiu, Ho-so-Shiu, San Ron-Shiu, Ke-Gon-Shiu, Ten-Dai-Shiu,
Shin-Gon-Shiu, Jo-Do-Shiu, Zen-Shiu, Shin-Shiu, and Nichi-Ren-Shiu. It is of a
tenet of the Shin-Shiu that I propose to speak. The student can learn much of
the others by consulting the works of Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio, M.A., and other
authorities.

The last four of those mentioned may be called the modern ones. Gen-Ku
founded the Jo-Do in 1174 A.D.; the Zen-Shiu was started by Ei-Sai in 1191 A.D.;
the Shin-Shiu was founded in 1224 A.D. by Shin-Ran; and in 1253 A.D., Nichi-Ren
established that one named for him. This last is more frequently called by the
founder's name because, although he adopted what is called the
Saddharmapundarika as the principal Sutra of it, he altered the substance of the
doctrine. For that reason it is called, paraphrastically, "Nichi-Ren's
Saddharmapundarika sect."

The essential difference between the Shin-Shiu and the others may be seen by
placing its doctrine and that of the Zen-Shiu side by side. In the latter the
disciple is to see the nature of Buddha by his own thought, free from the
influence of the eighty-four thousand different doctrines, while the Shin-Shiu
teaches that we attain salvation "by the power of another," who is Amita
Buddha.

The Zen-Shiu is said to have originated from the incident,
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well known to
Buddhists, of Gotama Buddha's taking from the heavenly king a flower of golden
color and holding it in his hand in silence. The disciples could not understand
the meaning of this, except Mahakasyapa, who, although he knew, only smiled and
remained also silent. Thereupon Buddha said to him, "I have the wonderful
thought of Nirvana." This was called "the doctrine of thought transmitted by
thought." Ananda received it from Kasyapa, and so on down a long list of
patriarchs in the church. The twenty-eighth patriarch, Bodhidharma, a king's
son, crossed over into China. In that country he attempted to teach the Emperor
the secret of the doctrine, but the pupil could not understand it, and
Bodhidharma entered a monastery where he pursued the practice of sitting in
meditation gazing at a wall for nine years, after which he gained disciples. He
was called "the wall-gazing Brahmana." A later devotee in 729 A.D. came from
China to Japan and established a form of the doctrine of Zen-Shiu. In this
school, as distinguished from the Shin-Shiu, the disciple exercises his own
thought independent of doctrine, while in the latter a doctrine is relied upon.
The words of the Indian poem Bhagavad-Gita may be profitably remembered here,
where it says that "he who pursues the unmanifested path has a more difficult
task [than any other] to perform." (1) (1) See Bhagavad-Gita.--[Ed.]

The other sects, except the Shin-Shiu, have various doctrines for the
attainment of the end in view, but the followers of the Shin-Shiu declare that
all these are "expedients." They do not exclude the Zen-Shiu, although it would
appear perhaps to the aggressive mind of the Englishman or American that to
tell a man he can attain Nirvana by his own power is not laying a mere expedient
before him.

It is because of these doctrines of expediency in other sects that the Shin-Shiu
call themselves "the True Sect of Buddhists."

The doctrine of the sect is also called by them "the Doctrine of the Pure
Land." The pure land referred to is the Land of Amida Buddha [Amitabha]: the
object is to be born into that land, that is, to obtain salvation. It has been
other -
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wise stated in this manner:

"Among those who follow the doctrine of the Pure Land, there are several
different systems of teaching, which are as follows: - 'Some say that we should
practise various good works, bring our stock of merits to maturity, and be born
in the Pure Land. Others say that we should repeat only the name of Amitabha
Buddha in order to be born in his Pure Land, by the merit produced from such
repetition.' These doctrines are all considered as yet the temporary expedients.
To rely upon the power of the original prayer of Amitabha Buddha with the whole
heart and give up all idea of Ji-Riki or 'self-power' is called the truth. This
truth is the doctrine of this sect." (2)(2) 12 Japanese Buddhist Sects, by Bunyiu Nanjio.

The eighteenth of the forty-eight prayers of Amita Buddha is the prayer
referred to. It is: "If any of living beings of the ten regions who have
believed in me with true thoughts and desire to be born in my country, and have
even to ten times repeated the thought of my name, should not be born there,
then may I not obtain the perfect knowledge." This prayer was made by him
because of his great desire to deliver all beings from suffering. It was a
prayer which he first uttered long before he himself obtained salvation, but he
continued for ages after that to work to the end that he might be able to make
the prayer of force and value to any one who should use it. It follows, of
course, that he accomplished his desire, and the Shin-Shiu sect accordingly
claims that this prayer or vow has a peculiar effect of its own, and has
strength to enable whoever uses it to reach salvation.

The claims made for this prayer are in accordance with certain views that are
held in the East about the force that resides in the vows of a wise or great
saint. They are said to have an actual dynamic effect upon the minds and hearts
of all persons who shall use them, even after the saint has died. It is claimed
that the power has to do with magnetism. And it is said by the followers of
Shin-Shiu that, when one begins to repeat and rely upon the prayer of Amita
Buddha, he at
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once connects himself with the whole body of real believers, and
as well with the power of Amita himself.

In its essence the doctrine is one of salvation by faith, but at the same time
the sect does not claim - as the Christian does for his dogma - that there is no
other way to be saved. They admit that a person may be saved "by his own power"-
if he has the requisite strength to hold out -, but they think that in general
men have not the power to resist evil for a time sufficient to permit the
accomplishment of the result; and they assert that besides the lack of strength
there will be doubt, for, "Faith by one's own power cannot afford rest to the
heart. It is said, 'Shall I surely attain salvation or shall I not?' and thus
what is called faith is in reality doubt," but "Faith by the power of another
affords rest to the heart. It is said -: 'I am born by the power of that vow; I
shall certainly attain salvation.' There is not the smallest doubt in the
heart." Another Sutra says: "Those who follow the method of 'self power' believe
in many other Buddhas; those who follow the method of 'another's power' believe
only in the one Buddha, as a faithful servant does not serve two masters."

In a compilation made by direction of the Eastern Hongwanji of Japan it is
said "The appellations 'true' and 'popular' are an important matter. Our sect
terms the attaining of the rest of the heart the True System; the observation of
the relations of life the Popular System. Our sect has granted the permission to
marry. Hence the five relations of life necessarily exist. Where the five
relations of life exist, the duties involved in them must be observed. This is
termed 'the popular system.'

"It is said in the Sutra: 'The living beings in the ten regions, be they
householders or houseless.' . . . Shall the holy path be different for them?
Although the sins of the unenlightened be many, if these are contrasted with the
power of the vow they are not as the millet seed to the ocean. . . . The sins of
the unenlightened are heavy; if you precipitate them on the three worlds they
inevitably sink; but if you place them on the ship of the vow they assuredly
become light. The merit of living beings is full of leaks. Mida's land of reward
has no
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leaks. With the merit which is full of leaks you cannot be born into the land
where there are no leaks."

From a later part of the same compilation: -"Our Founder said: 'brothers
within the four seas.' Faith by the power of another proceeds from Mida.
Thus Mida is father and mother; all within the four seas are brothers. The
Chinese call foreigners barbarians; foreigners call China uncivilized. Both, we
consider, are wrong. Those who do not observe the relations of life are the
barbarians, without distinction of 'home' or 'foreign.' Throughout all that the
heaven covers, wherever sun and moon shine, what is there that we shall call
barbarian or uncivilized? When the heart is wide as heaven and earth, the
discourse clear as sun and moon, then first is attained the equitable and just.
Between heaven and earth there is no one to be disassociated, no spot not to be
reached. The kindly relations of intercourse make the friend; two persons the
same mind; their spirit is as disseparated gold. One country the same mind; as a
golden bowl without defect. All countries the same mind; then first is attained
the perfect equitability. The foundation of the same mind is the calling to
remembrance of the one Buddha."...

"Zendo has said: 'We are truly like this: unenlightened we are subject to the
evil of birth and death; for long Kalpas we revolve, sinking and floating in the
sea of existence; there seems no cause of escape ... But He, Amida Buddha,
long kalpas ago putting forth a heart of great compassion, planning through five
kalpas, having accomplished the long kalpas, perfected his vow."

Hence we find the sect without spells or supplications for the avoiding of
trouble. They hold that the trouble and misery of our life are due to causes
originated either in long past existence or in the present incarnation. These
last are to be carefully avoided, and the "popular system" gives the various
rules to follow. But the causes that lie rooted in prior incarnations cannot be
provided for in any way. This stored-up Karma it is useless to regret or try to
avoid. It will have its course. But we must submit cheerfully, knowing that, by
rely-
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ing on the power of Buddha's sublime vow and by joining right practice to
it, in time all Karma, good and bad, will be exhausted. Hence there are no
spells, talismans, or supplications used by the Shin-Shiu. All its followers
must follow and imitate the Buddha in his great love and compassion, and they
hold that, if this were the practice in every part of the world, harmony would
prevail and prosperity come to all with peace and joy.

EUSEBIO URBANPath, September, 1888

REGARDING ISLAMISM

THE conversion to the religion of the Prophet Mohammed of Alexander Russell
Webb, F.T.S., and his establishing in New York a paper devoted to
Islamism, together with his lectures on the subject, have caused a great deal of
attention to be given to Mohammedanism. Bro. Webb is still a member of the
Society, with an interest in its progress, and this is another illustration of
the broadness of our platform. But he says that it has surprised him to find the
members in general paying slight regard to the life of the Prophet, his sayings
and his religion, as one of our objects calls for the study of all religions. In
India he found many followers of the Prophet in our Branches, and among them
much knowledge of formerly so-called esoteric doctrines, which are common to all
religions. That such would be the case must have long ago been evident to those
who have read the admirable articles which were printed some years ago in the
PATH upon Sufi poetry, as the Sufis really preserve the inner doctrines of
Islam. But it is natural that the religion of Mohammed has not received from
Western people very great consideration. They judge it in the mass, and not from
some of its teachings. The West has developed its social system and its
religious belief on its own lines, and having seen that many of the followers of
the Prophet are polygamists, which is contrary to Western notions, the entire
Islamic system has been condemned on that ground, both in a social and religious
sense.

The best Mohammedans say that the Prophet did not teach polygamy, but only
permitted it in case a man could treat
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many wives in exactly the same way in
every respect that he could one. Although over against this the Prophet himself
had but one wife, and was in fact a celibate, it was quite natural that his
followers should liberally construe what he said on the subject and take unto
themselves as many wives as their means permitted. This is human nature, and
would probably be the result today in the West if our people placed reliance on
the words of a Teacher who had made a similar statement.

The words of the Koran upon the subject of polygamy, as given by Mr. Webb,
are:

And if ye are apprehensive that ye shall not deal fairly with orphans, then
of other women who seem good in your eyes, marry but two, or three, or four;
if ye still fear that ye shall not act equitably, then one only.--Koran,
Sura IV, verse 3.

The next prominent conception held by Western people about the Mohammedans is
that they have forced an acceptance of their doctrines. We have such stories as
that they carried sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, compelling
people to accept the book under threat of the sword; that they burned books
containing matter other than that in the Koran, on the ground that if it was in
the Koran the books were unnecessary, and if it was not in the Koran the books
were wrong and should be burned. But the disciples of the Prophet assert that he
never taught any such thing, and point to much learning on the part of the
Mohammedans in the past. Doubtless these disciples are right, but we know that
many Mohammedans tried to coerce people, and that there is some foundation for
the story in respect to destruction of that which was not found in the Koran.
For these reasons the West has been opposed to Islamism without really knowing
much about it. The religion has been judged by the proceedings of its followers.
Similar charges might be made against Christian peoples, who notoriously both
individually and as nations are in the habit of going directly contrary to the
commands of their Founder.

A student of these subjects, then, comes to consider lastly the claims of
Islamism on philosophical and religious grounds,
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and naturally asks the question
whether it has any better philosophy than any other religion, and if its
religion is supported by a correct philosophy. If it be found that the truths
given out by the Prophet were known and written down before his time, then why
should the Western student turn to the later religion, the product of a more or
less undeveloped people, when he may go to the original from which it
undoubtedly came? And if in that original we can find broader and more definite
expositions of cosmogenesis and anthropogenesis, we may very properly use
Islamism to illustrate the Theosophic truism that one single truth is the basis
upon which all religions stand, but we are not necessarily obliged to adopt it
to the exclusion of anything else.

Islamism seems to many to exact a belief in a God, and the conception of
a God demands that that being shall be separate from those who believe in
him. This view does not appeal to many Western Theosophists, because they assert
that there can be no God different or separate from man. In the Rig Veda
of the Brahmans there are as grand, and some think grander, conceptions of God
and nature, as can be found in any Islamic book. If the two are equal in this
regard, then the Rig Veda, being admittedly the elder, must have the
first place by reason of age; but if the Rig Veda and the philosophy
growing out of it are broader and grander than the other, then for that reason
it must be more acceptable.

The five fundamental precepts of Islam are given in the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, as follows:

First, Confession of the Unity of God; second, stated prayer;
third, almsgiving; fourth, the fast of Ramadan; fifth,
observance of the festival of Mecca.

In the latest English publication on the subject, Mr. Webb says:

Orthodox Mohammedanism may be divided into six heads: First, faith in
God, the one God, the creator of all things, who always was and ever will be,
the single, immutable, omniscient, omnipotent, all-merciful, eternal God;
second, faith in angels, ethereal beings perfect in form and radiant in
beauty, without sex, free from all gross or sensual passion and the appetites
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and infirmities of all frail humanity; third, belief in the Koran as a
book of Divine revelation, given at various times to Mohammed by God or
through the Angel Gabriel; fourth, belief in God's prophets, the most
preeminent of whom were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed;
fifth, belief in the resurrection and final judgment, when all mankind
shall appear before God, who will reward or punish them according to the deeds
they have done on earth; sixth, belief in predestination, or the
inability of man to avoid, by any act of his own, the destiny irrevocably
predetermined by God and written down in the eternal book previous to the
creation of the world.

The religion of the Prophet contains, in common with all other religions, a
secret doctrine which is the same as that found in those differently named. As
referred to above, the Sufis taught a very high kind of mysticism, but not any
higher than that of the Hindus, nor any different from the mysticism of the
Christians, both of early and later times. They taught union with God; so do the
Hindu and the Christian. They spoke of their wife and their mistress and their
concubines or houris; so do mediaeval alchemists, and many of the Indian Yogis
speak in a similar strain; so that in whatever direction we turn it is found
that there is no substantial difference between Islamism and any other religion
except in respect to age, and it is really the youngest of all, excepting
perhaps the later Christian development found among the Mormons of America or
Latter-day Saints. In fact, some Western Theosophists have said that it would be
just as well to accept Mormonism as Islamism, since the teachings are identical
and the practices are also. The Mormons say that polygamy is not taught, but
they practice it; they have their mysticism, their prophecy, their various kinds
of frenzy, and among them are many extraordinary examples of prevision, notably
with Brig-ham Young, the second prophet.

Americans might be inclined, if they were about to make a change, to accept
their own natural product in preference to an Arabian one. Certainly in regard
to morality, honesty, thrift, temperance, and such virtues, the Mormons stand as
well as the followers of the Prophet Mohammed. But as we know little about true
Islamism, a careful consideration of it
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will no doubt add to our knowledge and
broaden our conceptions, since it must end in our seeing once more that none of
the religions of the day are true ones, but that a single body of truth
underlying them all must be the religion of the future.

HADJI ERINN Path, July, 1893

PROOFS OF THE HIDDEN SELF

THROUGH DREAMS

THE dream state is common to all people. Some persons say they never dream,
but upon examination it will be found they have had one or two dreams and that
they meant only to say their dreams were few. It is doubtful whether the person
exists who never has had a dream. But it is said that dreams are not of
importance; that they are due to blood pressure, or to indigestion, or to
disease, or to various causes. They are supposed to be unimportant because,
looking at them from the utilitarian view-point, no great use is seen to follow.
Yet there are many who always make use of their dreams, and history, both
secular and religious, is not without records of benefit, of warning, of
instruction from the dream. The well-known case of Pharaoh's dream of lean and
fat kine which enabled Joseph as interpreter to foresee and provide against a
famine represents a class of dream not at all uncommon. But the utilitarian view
is only one of many.
Dreams show conclusively that although the body and brain are asleep - for
sleep begins primarily in the brain and is governed by it -- there is still
active a recollector and perceiver who watches the introspective experience of
dreaming. Sorrow, joy, fear, anger, ambition, love, hate, and all possible
emotions are felt and perceived in dreams. The utility of this on the waking
plane has nothing to do with the fact of perception. Time all is measured
therein, not according to solar division but in respect to the effect produced
upon the dreamer. And as the counting of this time is done at a vastly quicker
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rate than is possible for the brain, it follows that some person is counting. In
all these dreams there is a recollection of the events perceived, and the memory
of it is carried into the waking state. Reason and all the powers of intelligent
waking man are used in dreams; and as emotion, reasoning, perception, and memory
are all found to be even more active in dreams than in waking life, it must
follow that the Hidden Self is the one who has and does all this.
The fanciful portion of dreams does not invalidate the position. Fancy is not
peculiar to dreaming; it is also present in waking consciousness. In many people
fancy is quite as usual and vivid as with any dreamer. And we know that children
have a strong development of fancy. Its presence in dream simply means that the
thinker, being liberated temporarily from the body and the set forms or grooves
of the brain, expands that ordinary faculty. But passing beyond fancy we have
the fact that dreams have prophecy of events not yet come. This could not be
unless there exists the inner Hidden Self who sees plainly the future and the
past in an ever present.

IN CLAIRVOYANCE

Waking clairvoyance cannot now be denied. Students of Theosophy know it to be
a faculty of man, and in America its prevalence is such as to call for no great
proof. There is the clairvoyance of events past, of those to come, and of those
taking place.
To perceive events that have taken place in which the clairvoyant had no part
nor was informed about, means that some other instrument than the brain is used.
This must be the Hidden Self. Seeing and reporting events that subsequently
transpire gives the same conclusion. If the brain is the mind, it must have had
a part in a past event which it now reports, either as actor or as hearer from
another who was present, but as in the cases cited it had no such connection as
actor, then it follows that it has received the report from some other
perceiver. This other one is the Hidden Self, because the true clairvoyant case
excludes any report by an eye-witness.
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Then again, when the clairvoyant is dealing with an event presently proceeding
at a distance, it is necessary that a perceiver who recollects must be present
in order to make report. For the brain and its organs of sight and hearing are
too far off. But as the clairvoyant does report correctly what is going on, it
is the other Hidden Self who sees the event, bridges the gap between it and the
brain, and impresses the picture upon the bodily organs.

THE FEELING OF IDENTITY

If recollection is the basis for the feeling of identity continuous
throughout life, and if brain is the only instrument for perception, then there
is an inexplicable series of gaps to be accounted for or bridged over, but
admitting the Hidden Self no gaps exist.
We are born feeling that we are ourself, without a name, but using a name for
convenience later on. We reply to challenge by saying "It is I" - the name
following only for convenience to the other person. This personal identity
remains although we fall asleep each night and thus far become unconscious. And
we know that even when a long period is blotted out of memory by fall, blow, or
other accidental injury, the same feeling of identity crosses that gap and
continues the same identical "I" to where memory again acts. And although years
of life with all their multiplicity of events and experience have passed,
leaving but a small amount of recollection, we yet know ourselves as that
unnamed person who came to life so many years before. We do not remember our
birth nor our naming, and if we are but a bundle of material experience, a mere
product of brain and recollection, then we should have no identity but constant
confusion. The contrary being the case, and continuous personal identity being
felt and perceived, the inevitable conclusion is that we are the Hidden Self and
that Self is above and beyond both body and brain.

WILLIAM
Q. JUDGE
Path, August, 1894

REMEMBERING THE EXPERIENCES
OF THE EGO

TO many it seems puzzling that we do not remember the experiences of the
Higher Self in sleep. But as long as we ask "Why does not the lower self
remember these experiences," we shall never have an answer. There is a
contradiction in the question, because the lower self, never having had the
experiences it is required to remember, could not at any time recollect them.
When sleep comes on, the engine and instrument of the lower personality is
stopped, and can do nothing but what may be called automatic acts. The brain is
not in use, and hence no consciousness exists for it until the waking moment
returns. The ego, when thus released from the physical chains, from from its
hard daily task of living with and working through the bodily organs, proceeds
to enjoy the experiences of the plane of existence which is peculiarly its own.
On that plane it uses a method and processes of thought, and perceives the
ideas appropriate to it through organs different from those of the body. All
that it sees and hears (if we may use those terms) appears reversed from our
plane. The language, so to say, is a foreign one even to the inner language used
when awake. So, upon reassuming life in the body, all that it has to tell its
lower companion must be spoken in a strange tongue, and for the body that is an
obstruction to comprehension. We hear the words, but only now and then obtain
flashes of their meaning. It is something like the English-speaking person who
knows a few foreign words entering a foreign town and there being only able to
grasp those few terms as he hears them among the multitude of other words and
sentences which he does not understand.
What we have to do, then, is to learn the language of the Ego, so that we
shall not fail to make a proper translation to ourselves. For at all times the
language of the plane through which the Ego nightly floats is a foreign one to
the brain we use, and has to be always translated for use by the brain. If
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the
interpretation is incorrect, the experience of the Ego will never be made
complete to the lower man.
But it may be asked if there is an actual language for the Ego, having its
sound and corresponding signs. Evidently not; for, if there were, there would
have been made a record of it during all those countless years that sincere
students have been studying themselves. It is not a language in the ordinary
sense. It is more nearly described as a communication of ideas and experience by
means of pictures. So with it a sound may be pictured as a color or a figure,
and an odor as a vibrating line; an historical event may be not only shown as a
picture, but also as a light or a shadow, or as a sickening smell or delightful
incense; the vast mineral world may not only exhibit its planes and angles and
colors, but also its vibrations and lights. Or, again, the ego may have reduced
its perceptions of size and distance for its own purposes, and, having the
mental capacity for the time of the ant, it may report to the bodily organs a
small hole as an abyss, or the grass of the field as a gigantic forest. These
are adduced by way of example, and are not to be taken as hard and fast lines of
description.
Upon awakening, a great hindrance is found in our own daily life and terms of
speech and thought to the right translation of these experiences, and the only
way in which we can use them with full benefit is by making ourselves porous, so
to speak, to the influences from the higher self, and by living and thinking in
such a manner as will be most likely to bring about the aim of the soul.
This leads us unerringly to virtue and knowledge, for the vices and the
passions eternally becloud our perception of the meaning of what the Ego tries
to tell us. It is for this reason that the sages inculcate virtue. Is it not
plain that, if the vicious could accomplish the translation of the Ego's
language, they would have done it long ago, and is it not known to us all that
only among the virtuous can the Sages be found?

I SPEAK of ordinary men. The Adept, the Master, the Yogi, the Mahatma, the
Buddha, each lives in more than three states while incarnated upon this world,
and they are fully conscious of them all, while the ordinary man is only
conscious of the first - the waking-life, as the word conscious is now
understood.
Every theosophist who is in earnest ought to know the importance of these three
states, and especially how essential it is that one should not lose in Swapna
the memory of experiences in Sushupti, nor in Jagrata those of Swapna, and
vice versa.
Jagrata, our waking state, is the one in which we must be regenerated; where
we must come to a full consciousness of the Self within, for in no other is
salvation possible.
When a man dies he goes either to the Supreme Condition from which no return
against his will is possible, or to the other states - heaven, hell, avitchi,
devachan, what not - from which return to incarnation is inevitable. But he
cannot go to the Supreme State unless he has perfected and regenerated himself;
unless the wonderful and shining heights on which the Masters stand have been
reached while he is in a body. This consummation, so devoutly desired, cannot be
secured unless at some period in his evolution the being takes the steps that
lead to the final attainment. These steps can and must be taken. In the very
first is contained the possibility of the last,
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for causes once put in motion
eternally produce their natural results.
Among those steps are an acquaintance with and understanding of the three states
first spoken of.
Jagrata acts on Swapna, producing dreams and suggestions, and either disturbs
the instructions that come down from the higher state or aids the person through
waking calmness and concentration which tend to lessen the distortions of the
mental experiences of dream life. Swapna again in its turn acts on the waking
state (Jagrata) by the good or bad suggestions made to him in dreams. All
experience and all religions are full of proofs of this. In the fabled Garden of
Eden the wily serpent whispered in the ear of the sleeping mortal to the end
that when awake he should violate the command. In Job it is said that God
instructeth man in sleep, in dreams, and in visions of the night. And the common
introspective and dream life of the most ordinary people needs no proof. Many
cases are within my knowledge where the man was led to commit acts against which
his better nature rebelled, the suggestion for the act coming to him in dream.
It was because the unholy state of his waking thoughts infected his dreams, and
laid him open to evil influences. By natural action and reaction he poisoned
both Jagrata and Swapna.
It is therefore our duty to purify and keep clear these two planes.
The third state common to all is Sushupti, which has been translated "dreamless
sleep." The translation is inadequate, for, while it is dreamless, it is
also a state in which even criminals commune through the higher nature with
spiritual beings and enter into the spiritual plane. It is the great spiritual
reservoir by means of which the tremendous momentum toward evil living is held
in check. And because it is involuntary with them, it is constantly salutary in
its effect.
In order to understand the subject better, it is well to consider a little in
detail what happens when one falls asleep, has dreams, and then enters Sushupti.
As his outer senses are
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dulled the brain begins to throw up images, the
reproductions of waking acts and thoughts, and soon he is asleep. He has then
entered a plane of experience which is as real as that just quitted, only that
it is of a different sort. We may roughly divide this from the waking life by an
imaginary partition on the one side, and from Sushupti by another partition on
the other. In this region he wanders until he begins to rise beyond it into the
higher. There no disturbances come from the brain action, and the being is a
partaker to the extent his nature permits of the "banquet of the gods." But he
has to return to waking state, and he can get back by no other road than the one
he came upon, for, as Sushupti extends in every direction and Swapna under it
also in every direction, there is no possibility of emerging at once from
Sushupti into Jagrata. And this is true even though on returning no memory of
any dream is retained.
Now the ordinary non-concentrated man, by reason of the want of focus due to
multitudinous and confused thought, has put his Swapna field or state into
confusion, and in passing through it the useful and elevating experiences of
Sushupti become mixed up and distorted, not resulting in the benefit to him as a
waking person which is his right as well as his duty to have. Here again is seen
the lasting effect, either prejudicial or the opposite, of the conduct and
thoughts when awake.
So it appears, then, that what he should try to accomplish is such a clearing up
and vivification of Swapna state as shall result in removing the confusion and
distortion existing there, in order that upon emerging into waking life he may
retain a wider and brighter memory of what occurred in Sushupti. This is done by
an increase of concentration upon high thoughts, upon noble purposes, upon all
that is best and most spiritual in him while awake. The best result cannot be
accomplished in a week or a year, perhaps not in a life, but, once begun, it
will lead to the perfection of spiritual cultivation in some incarnation
hereafter.
By this course a centre of attraction is set up in him while
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awake, and to that
all his energies flow, so that it may be figured to ourselves as a focus in the
waking man. To this focal point-looking at it from that plane - converge the
rays from the whole waking man toward Swapna, carrying him into dream - state
with greater clearness. By reaction this creates another focus in Swapna,
through which he can emerge into Sushupti in a collected condition. Returning he
goes by means of these points through Swapna, and there, the confusion being
lessened, he enters into his usual waking state the possessor, to some extent at
least, of the benefits and knowledge of Sushupti. The difference between the man
who is not concentrated and the one who is, consists in this, that the first
passes from one state to the other through the imaginary partitions postulated
above, just as sand does through a sieve, while the concentrated man passes from
one to the other similarly to water through a pipe or the rays of the sun
through a lens. In the first case each stream of sand is a different experience,
a different set of confused and irregular thoughts, whereas the collected man
goes and returns the owner of regular and clear experience.
These thoughts are not intended to be exhaustive, but so far as they go it is
believed they are correct. The subject is one of enormous extent as well as
great importance, and theosophists are urged to purify, elevate, and concentrate
the thoughts and acts of their waking hours so that they shall not continually
and aimlessly, night after night and day succeeding day, go into and return from
these natural and wisely appointed states, no wiser, no better able to help
their fellow men. For by this way, as by the spider's small thread, we may gain
the free space of spiritual life.

EUSEBIO URBAN
Path, August, 1888

THE SEVENFOLD DIVISIONWHY NOT CHANGE THE DESIGNATION?

MR. Sinnett's book Esoteric Buddhism has done a great deal towards
bringing before the West the Eastern philosophy regarding man and his
constitution, but it has also served to perpetuate the use of a word that is
misleading and incorrect. In that work on p. 61 he states, "Seven distinct
principles are recognized by Esoteric Science as entering into the constitution
of man," and then gives his scheme of division thus, The body, Vitality,
Astral Body, Animal Soul, Human Soul, Spiritual Soul, and seventh, Spirit or
Atma. Now if Spirit be, as the whole philosophy declares, in all and through
all, it is erroneous to call it one of the series. This very early led to the
accusation that we believed in seven distinct spirits in man. It always leads to
misconception, and directly tends to preventing our understanding fully that the
Atma includes, and is the substratum of, all the others. In India it caused a
protracted and, at times, heated discussion between the adherents of the rigid
seven-fold classification of Esoteric Buddhism and several learned and
unlearned Hindus who supported a four-fold or five-fold division. During that
debate the chief Hindu controverter, while holding to a different system,
admitted the existence of "a real esoteric seven-fold classification," which of
course cannot be given to the public. Mr. Sinnett also evidently made a mistake
when he said that the first mentioned division is the esoteric one.
Now it would seem that many of these misconceptions and differences could be
prevented if a word were adopted and invariably used that would clearly express
the idea intended
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to be conveyed. As the prime declaration of theosophy is that
all these so-called bodies and appearances are for the purpose of enabling the
ONE--the Atma--to fully comprehend nature and "bring about the aim of the soul,"
why not denominate all that it uses for that purpose as vehicles? This
name is strictly in accord with all parts of the philosophy. It is in effect the
same as Upadhi, or basis, foundation, carrier. By its use we make no
error when we say that theosophy declares there is Atma, which works with and
through six vehicles. Strictly, the body is a vehicle for the astral
body, it for the next, and so on up to Atma, which is therefore seen to be all
and in all, as is clearly declared in Bhagavad-Gita.
This change, or to some other than "principles," should be adopted by all
theosophists, for every day there is more inquiry by new minds, and theosophists
themselves, indeed, need to use their words with care when dealing with such
subjects. Or if greater clearness is desired, let us say that there is one
principle which acts through six vehicles. The scheme will then stand
thus:

Names have power, and if we go on talking of 7 principles when in truth there
is but one, we are continually clouding our conception of theosophic truth.

EUSEBIO URBAN Path, April, 1890

THE SUBJECTIVE AND THE OBJECTIVEA LESSON FROM THE CAVE OF PLATO-REPUBLIC, BOOK VII

After this, I said, imagine the enlightenment and ignorance of our nature
in a figure: Behold! human beings living in a sort of underground den, which
has a mouth opening towards the light, and reaching all across the den; they
have been here from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so
that they cannot move, and can only see before them; for the chains are
arranged in such a manner as to prevent them from turning their heads. At a
distance above and behind them the light of a fire is blazing, and between the
fire and the prisoners there is a raised way, like the screen which marionette
players have before them, over which they show the puppets.
I see, he said.
And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall, carrying vessels which
appear over the wall; and some of the passengers, as you would expect, are
talking, and some of them are silent?
That is a strange image, he said, and they are strange prisoners.
Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the
shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the
cave?
True, he said, how could they see anything but the shadows, if they were
never allowed to move their heads?
And of the objects which were being carried in like manner they would only
see the shadows?
Yes, he said.
And if they were able to talk with one another, would they not suppose that
they were naming what was actually before them?
Very true.
And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other
side, would they not be sure to fancy that the voice which they heard was the
voice of a passing shade?
No question, he said.
There can be no question, that the truth would be to them just nothing but
the shadows of the images.

THE term consciousness is used by writers connected with the
Theosophical movement with a very wide range of meaning. Atoms are invisible
lives, says H.P.B.; and there is no such thing as inorganic, in the sense of
dead
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or lifeless matter. Every variety or kind of existence is conscious on its
own plane or according to its own condition or state; the molecules of granite
as well and as truly, though not in the same way, as the mind of man. Every
molecule in the brain has its own consciousness, according to its state or plane
of existence; and the sum of the consciousness of its molecules is the
consciousness of the brain in its totality, considered as a merely physical,
visible organ.
But the astral man, which we may take to be coextensive with the physical
man, and to correspond with it, if not to coincide with it, organ for organ and
molecule for molecule, is the real seat of sensation; and in the brain the
sensations are registered and interpreted. The astral brain, the organ of Kama
Manas, or of the lower or personal mind, furnishes the connecting link between
the thinker and the object of thought; and here is bridged the chasm which has
been recognized by philosophers in Western lands at least, as utterly
impassable. Says President Bascom:

Facts must exist either in space as physical or in consciousness, as
mental; there is no third state. Mental and physical phenomena are cut broadly
and deeply apart, by the fact that the one class transpires exclusively in
consciousness and the other as exclusively out of consciousness (in space).
Again he says:
There is no a priori impossibility discoverable by us, making the
transfer of influence from mind to matter, from matter to mind, an absurdity.
Our last traces of physical force in the movement inward are found in the
brain; our first traces in the movement outward are also met with at the same
point. Thus far only can the eye trace material changes; here is it first able
to pick them up. How the last nervous impulse is linked to the play of
consciousness...we cannot imagine...We are profoundly ignorant of any
connection between the two.

Now the scheme of Theosophy recognizes a continuous gradation of powers,
faculties, states, principles-call them what you will-from the highest or most
spiritual to the lowest or most material. In this whole gamut of states or
conditions no chasm is found; there is nothing to bridge; consciousness is the
necessary substratum and presupposition of
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the most material, and consciousness
is the noumenon or essential reality of the most spiritual.
We know of nothing more material or external than the physical, material,
visible body-the world of matter, so called; and here is the inner wall
(reversing the figure from outward to inward) of the cave which Socrates
describes in Plato's dialogue; the wall upon which fall the shadows supposed by
the prisoners to be the only realities. Indeed, the "wall" may be taken as
merely the drop-curtain of the theatre, and the shadows themselves as
representing the physical substance known to ourselves and our fellow prisoners.
Hence there can be on this lowest plane (the plane of the shadows) really no
consciousness as we know it; consciousness only looks on what is below, and
cannot for its chains turn its face upward to the light. It is said, indeed,
that the atom is the Atma or seventh principle of the molecule; but the molecule
is infinitesimal and invisible, and what consciousness on that plane-we cannot
profitably guess even, much less know.
The astral or kamic man is within, or above, or superior to the physical man;
and its apprehension of external or physical nature, which we term sensation, is
the lowest form of consciousness recognized by us. But mere sensation is not
intelligent. As the astral or emotional man exists within (in the symbolic
meaning of "within") the physical man, and by its power of sense takes hold of
the latter, so there exists within the astral or emotional the logical faculty
or principle whose office is to sort out the sensations and refer each to its
source or cause in the outer world. This logical faculty (the lower mind or Kama
Manas) is, as related to the world or planes below it, the faculty that
perceives; and its action in taking hold of and interpreting the sensation is
called perception.
Now suppose we consider the real Ego, the enduring entity that we mean when
we say "man," to be one of the prisoners represented by Plato as confined in a
den or cave; and external, physical, visible and tangible matter as the shadows
on
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the wall of the cave. The Ego, in its descent from spirit into matter, goes
deeper and deeper into the cave until it reaches the wall and is stopped. It can
go no farther; and it must, impelled by the universal and all-embracing law of
action and reaction, retrace its course toward spirit. Its progress downward or
outward (from spirit,-inward as to the cave) has been without consciousness in
any sense that we can comprehend. When it strikes the wall of its dungeon and
strives to go still farther, it cannot do so; its limit is reached. This develops
unintelligent consciousness--a consciousness wholly spiritual, and in no sense manasic. As it recedes backward in involution, still facing the wall, the
reflected light of Manas thrown back from the wall enables it to interpret in a
manner these sensations-to distinguish them from each other and to group
them-but not at first to relate them to itself. Here is the beginning of the
lowest mind, known in Mr. Sinnett's classification as Kama Rupa or the Animal
soul. To reach this degree of development immeasurable ages were required. The
first dawn of sensation begins when the physical development has proceeded far
enough to furnish a suitable vehicle for the astral body. The astral development
goes on, and moulds the physical world to its purpose, until it in its turn has
become-or until the two together have become-a suitable vehicle for the
emotional and perceptive faculties. These steps are easy to name, but they have
been taken with slow and toilsome tread through the first, second and third
rounds of our chain of globes; and were repeated in briefer but immensely long
periods in the first races of this our fourth round.
To the stone belongs molecular consciousness, not consciousness as we know
it, but only so called by analogy; to the plant belongs astral consciousness, or
the dawn of sensation; to the animal belongs emotional consciousness, or the
dawn of perception. As this faculty or principle becomes more and more fully
developed and active a new faculty begins to act-the human intellect, the lower
manas begins to awake and exercise its functions. The prisoner has retreated
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far
enough from the wall of his cave, has evolved far enough toward spiritual
perception, to be able to recognize his lower principles as himself-to relate
the experience, the sensations, the perceptions of these lower principles to his
own identity; to distinguish between the "I" and the "not-I." This is
self-consciousness, or consciousness of self; and here the human stage is
reached in the return of the monad from its journey to the confines of matter.
In Discussions of Philosophy and Literature, Sir William Hamilton, one
of the foremost philosophers of modern times, makes the following statement:

In the philosophy of mind, subjective denotes what is to be referred
to the thinking subject, the Ego; objective, what belongs to the object
of thought, the Non-Ego....These correlative terms correspond to the first and
most important distinction in philosophy; they embody the original antithesis
in consciousness of self and non-self-a distinction which in fact involves the
whole science of mind; for psychology is nothing more than a determination of
the subjective and the objective in themselves, and in their reciprocal
relations.

Hamilton was not only a profound thinker and an erudite scholar; he was also
a master in the English language, and capable of expressing his thoughts clearly
and tersely. The definition above quoted certainly gives the right use of these
terms; and for those who, with President Bascom, hold that a gulf that cannot be
bridged cuts broadly apart the facts which transpire in consciousness and the
facts which transpire in space, it would seem to need no further elucidation.
But when they are used in Theosophical discussing, the further consideration
must not be overlooked, that the Ego, the Non-Ego, and the bond between the two
(the thinker, the object of thought, and the thought) are all one. This gives
emphasis to the fact that the line between the subject and object is purely
imaginary; the distinction is logical and not metaphysical. Thus the terms
subjective and objective are seen to be wholly correlative, and what is
subjective in one relation is objective in another, and vice versâ. This
correlative feature has always been recognized; but it becomes more significant
and takes on new phases when viewed in the light of
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the septenary constitution
of man.
Philosophers who have thought most deeply, and who have explored most fully
the nature of man, and the various problems of ontology, show by their
postulates and their reasoning that they implicitly apprehend, if they do not
explicitly recognized, several of the distinctions represented by the septenary
classification of principles. Dr. James March, president of the University of
Vermont at the time of his death about fifty years ago, left several
philosophical treatises which were afterward collected and published by his
successor in the faculty of that institution. It is many years since I read this
work, but I remember distinctly an essay in which the learned doctor discussed
the changes wrought by the supervening of higher faculties in the course of
evolution. He spoke of the force by which a crystal is built up by accretion, by
regular additions from without; of the force by which a vegetable germ develops
from within; of the powers of perception and locomotion which distinguish the
animal, to some species of he conceded the logical faculty of ratiocination; and
of the faculty of intuition, or perception of intellectual and spiritual truths
and axioms, which distinguishes man from the lower forms of animal life. Here,
in the classification of existence as amorphous, crystalline, vegetable, animal
and human, each higher including all lower but super adding a new faculty, power,
or principle or growth, there is plainly foreshadowed the method upon which our
teaching of the septenary constitution of nature and of man is developed.
As the subjective is that which is within, and the objective is that which is
without, the relation first emerges upon the evolution of the astral principle,
or Linga Sharira; for the merely physical entity is so thoroughly one in nature
that its different forms can hardly be considered as bearing this relation to
each other. (Yet there is probably a septenary in physical nature below the
astral, as witness earth, water, air, fire, etc.; and earth may be in truth
objective to air.) The distinctions that are so obvious, organic, inorganic,
etc., are really differing manifestations of the informing higher prin-
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ciples.
But upon the development of the astral principle the relation appears; this is
subjective as to the physical body, and the latter is objective as to the
former. So when the kamic principle develops, or evolves from potentiality to
potency, from a latent state to activity, this in turn becomes subjective, and
to it the lower principles are objective. When the Lower Manas in its turn
becomes active and subjective, it take intelligent cognizance of the lower
principles as objective, and recognizes their identity with itself, and then
self-consciousness appears. And when, by evolution or training, the Higher Manas
becomes active, then will the entire quaternary, or lower Ego, become in
relation to this added faculty, objective.
This is very well expressed in an article in Lucifer for September,
1891 (Vol IX, p. 23,) as follows:

This expansion of consciousness includes a development of the subtile
senses which open up to the inner man new worlds, people with their
inhabitants, and interdependent the one with the other. The subjective becomes
the objective, with a still more subtile subjectivity beyond, which can become
again objective as a still more spiritual consciousness is attained by the
striver after freedom.
In the Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 189, H.P.B. says:
It stands to reason that there must be an enormous difference in such terms
as "objectivity" and "subjectivity," "materiality" and "spirituality," when
the same terms are applied to different planes of being and perception.

This paper is intended to be suggestive rather than exhaustive; and I shall
have accomplished my purpose if I have set the relation of subjective to
objective in a clearer light, and pointed out the direction in which to look for
a better understanding of the philosophical side of our literature.

ALPHA

Path, February, 1896

"THE SELF IS THE FRIEND OF SELF
AND ALSO ITS ENEMY"

THIS sentence in the Bhagavad Gita has been often passed over as being
either meaningless or mysterious; on one hand worthless to consider, and on the
other hand impossible. Some students have, however, made good use of the
teaching contained in it. It is a verse that bears directly upon Theosophy as
applied to our daily life, and therefore may well be scrutinized.

It indicates two selfs, one the enemy and also the friend of the other.
Evidently, without the suggestions found in Theosophy, two selfs in one person
cannot seem otherwise than meaningless, except in those cases, admitted by
Science, where there is a aberration of the intellect, where one lobe of the
brain refuses to work with the other, or where there is some cerebral
derangement. But after a little study of the constitution of man-material and
spiritual-as we find it outlined in the Wisdom-Religion, we easily see that the
higher and the lower self are meant.

The next injunction, to "raise the self by the self," clearly points to this;
for, as a thing cannot raise itself without a fulcrum, the self which will raise
us must be the higher one, and that which is to be raised is the lower.

In order to accomplish this task we must gain an acquaintance with the self
which is to be raised. The greater and more accurate that acquaintance is, the
quicker will proceed the work of elevating the being who attempts it.

Let us for a moment look at the obstacles in the way, the reasons why, with
so many, their understanding of themselves
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is so plainly deficient.

Everyone knows that he can see the defects in the actions and character of
other men better than his own. Some, of course, there are who do not allow that
they have defects.

St. James says that a man looketh in a glass and straightway forgetteth what
manner of man he is. While I have often doubted this, yet it is true in respect
to that looking-glass which is often by others held up to us to see ourselves
in. We see for a moment our appearance and then forget it.

There are some things, however, as to which it is often impossible for us to
know ourselves. Such of our tones as are harsh or disagreeable we often cannot
hear as others do. For there is hardly anything so difficult as to really hear
our own voice in its entirety of tone and accent. We are so accustomed to it
that we cannot tell whether it be pleasing or repellent, musical or discordant.
We have to rely upon the statements of those who hear it. Indeed, I doubt
seriously if anyone can ever fully hear, in the way those to whom we speak do,
the tones of his voice, because it is conveyed to us not only through the medium
of the outer ear which receives the vibrations made without us, but we receive
it in addition through the vibrations made within all through the skull, and
hence it must ever be a different voice for ourselves. So it would not be
profitable to pay too much attention to the sound of our voice if we do so to
the exclusion of that inner attitude which nearly always determines the tone in
which we speak; for if our feelings be kind and charitable, it is more than
likely that the vocal expression of them will correspond. The cultivation of the
voice, so far as it is possible, can safely be left to those teachers who aim to
soften and polish it.

By taking a few examples from among the many about us and assuming that they
represent possible defects and peculiarities of our own, we may arrive at
something useful in our Theosophic life.

Here is one who will constantly tell you that several others are always very
fond of talking of themselves and their affairs,
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and appear to take no interest
in the conversation unless it has themselves for center. And after thus
depicting the failings of the others, this person-man or woman- immediately
proceeds to show that, that is his own particular fault for from that moment the
burden of the conversation is "I" or "my" affairs.

Our next subject is one who talks a great deal about altruism and
brotherhood, but would not give a dollar to any good cause. Not perhaps from
intentional niggardliness, but from sheer habit of not giving and not helping.

Here is another who exemplifies the prominent defect of the century,
inattention. He listens to you, but only hears a part, and then, when repeating
what he says he heard you say, he gives a version entirely at variance with
yours. Or, listening to an argument or discussion, he only attends to that part
which being familiar to him strikes him favorably.

Next we have the bigot who, while exalting freedom of thought and the unity
of all men, displays most frightful bigotry.

Then there is another who illustrates a variety of the first to which I
referred;-the man who wishes apparently only to impose his own views upon you,
and is careless about knowing what your opinions may be.

Here is the partisan
who. favors such a school or set. Nothing can be said against them, no. defect
may be painted out. Partisanship clouds it all.

Now all of these are only samples; but in some degree every one of us has
them all, perhaps slightly, but still there. They are all the result of the
predominance of the lower self, for they all show a disposition to put the
personal I to the front. They are the present triumph of the lower self
over the efforts of the higher. They may be abated in some degree by attention
to their outer expression, but no real progress will be gained unless work upon
the hidden plane is begun. Such a defect as that one of not listening long to
another man's views, but hurrying to tell him what you think yourself, is one
that
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affects the acquiring of new ideas. If you constantly tell others what you
think, you are gaining nothing. For your experience and views are your own, well
known to you. The repeated expression of them only serves to imprint them more
strongly on your mind. You do not receive any of the new lights that other minds
might cast upon your philosophy if you gave them the opportunity.

There are other factors in our constitution which are powerful for the
production of faults. Every man has two lines of descent. One is that which
comes through his parents and has to do with his mental and physical makeup.
This line may run back into the most strange and peculiar places, and be found
winding in and out among manners and minds not suspected by us. Suppose your
physical line of descent comes through Danes or Norwegians and mine through the
French. There will be to some extent a want of sympathy and appreciation on the
mental plane between us. Of course this effect will not be apparent if the
period of time is long since our blood ran in those bodies, but still there will
be left some trace of it. There will be a tendency always for the physical,
including the brain, to show the characteristics which result from the
preponderance of inherited faculties and dispositions. These characteristics
belong wholly to the physical plane, and are carried down from the centuries
past by inheritance, affecting the particular body you may inhabit in any one
incarnation. It is your Karma to have that sort of physical environment about
our inner self. Now the obstacles to the perception of truth and to the
acquirement of knowledge of self which are in consequence of the physical
inheritance, are difficult to perceive, involving much study and
self-examination for the bringing them to light. But they are there, and the
serious Theosophist will search for them. These differences in the physical
body, which we will call for the time differences in inheritance, are of the
highest importance. They resemble the differences between telescopes or
microscopes made by different opticians, and tend to cause us to see truth
clearly or blurred, or surrounded by many-colored mists. What we most
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desire to
have is a mental telescope that is not only powerful, but also devoid of the
colors which achromatic quality only will dispel.

The second line of descent is that one which belongs purely to the inner man;
that is, the psychical line. It is obscure, and, indeed, can only be discovered
and defined by an adept or a trained seer whose clairvoyance permits him to see
that intangible yet powerful thread which has so much to do with our character.
It is just as important as the physical descent, in fact more so, because it has
to do with the ever-living man, whereas the physical tenement is selected by or
follows upon the actions which the inner man compelled the former body to
perform. So it may be altered at any time with ease if we live in obedience to
the higher law.

Passing from the broad line of descent in a nation, we find each individual
governed also by the family peculiarities and faults, and they are not as easy
to define as those that are national, since few men are in possession of any
facts sufficient to ascertain the general family tendencies.

Coming down now to ourselves, it is almost axiomatic that each one/s mind
acts in a way peculiar to itself. There is a tendency that daily grows
stronger after our earlier years for the mind to get into a rut, its own rut or mode
of looking at things and ideas. This is of great importance. For the man who has
freed his mind so that it is capable of easily entering into the methods of
other minds is more likely to see truth quicker than he who is fixed in his own
ways.

We must then at once constitute ourselves our own critics and adversaries,
for it is not often that anyone else is either willing or capable to take that
part for us.

Our first step and the most difficult-for some, indeed impossible-is to shock
ourselves in such a manner that we may quickly be able to get out of, or rather
understand, our own mental methods. I do not mean that we must abandon all our
previous training and education, but that we shall so analyze all our mental
operations as to know with certainty,
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to easily perceive, the actual difference
in method between ourselves and any other person. This is a thing seldom
undertaken or accomplished by men nowadays. Each one is enamored of his own
mental habits, and disinclined to admit that any other one can be better. When
we have become acquainted with this mental path of ours, we are then in position
to see whether in any particular case our view is false.

This is the psychological and metaphysical equivalent of that scientific
process which classifies and compares so as to arrive at distinguishing
differences in things in order that physical laws may be discovered. For while
we remain in ignorance of the method and path of our mind's actions, there is no
way in which we can compare with other minds. We can compare views and opinions,
but not the actual mechanics of the thought. We can hear doctrines, but are
unable to say whether we accept or reject from right reasoning or because our
peculiar slant on the mental plane compels us to ratiocinate wholly in
accordance with a mental obliquity acquired by many years of hurried life.

The value of thus understanding our own mental bias
so that we can give it up
at will and enter into a bias of another's mind is seen when we consider that
each of us is able to perceive but one of many sides which truth presents. If we
remain in the rut which is natural, we pass through an entire life viewing
nature and the field of thought through but one sort of instrument. But by the
other practice we may obtain as many different views of truth as the number of
the minds we meet. When another human being brings his thoughts before us, we
may not only examine them in our way, but also take his method and, adopting his
bias for the time as our own, see just that much more.

It is very easy to illustrate this from ordinary life. The novelist sees in
the drawing-rooms of society and the hovels of the poor only the material that
may serve as the basis for a new book, while the social schemer drives thought
of hovels away and sees in society only the means of gratifying pride and
ambition, yet the artist can only think of the play of color
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and arrangement of
figures, the harmony that delights his artistic sense.

The plain man of affairs is not attracted by the complex events of every day
which have no relation to his business, whereas the student of Occultism knows
that very obscure events point to other things yet in the future. In every
stratum of society and every art or profession we constantly have it brought
home to us that each man looks at any subject from but one or two standpoints,
and when a well-balanced mind is found looking at events and men and thoughts
freely from all sides, everyone sees at once a superiority in the person, albeit
they may not be able to explain it.

But it is in Theosophic study especially that it is wise for us to constitute
ourselves our own critics and to adopt as far as possible the practice of
leaving our own mental road and taking up some other. The truth is simple and
not so difficult to arrive at if we will follow the advice of the Hindu
Upanishad and cut away error. Error grows largely out of notions and
preconceptions educated into us by our teachers and our lives.

The influence of these preconceptions is seen every day among those
Theosophists who are seeking for more books to read upon Theosophy. Their minds
are so full of old notions which are not violently expelled, that truth cannot
be easily perceived. But if they read fewer new books and spent more time in
re-reading those first attempted, meanwhile studiously endeavoring to enter into
all of the author's thought, much more progress would be gained.

Take, for instance, the Key to Theosophy. It is full of all the main
doctrines of the Wisdom-Religion, and of hints towards others. Many persons have
read the book and then sought another. They say they have mastered it. Yet if
you put to them some questions or listen to their own, it is apparent that only
that part of the work which in some way coincides with their own previous
training and line of thought has been grasped. Now this is just the part they
need not have
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dwelt upon, because, being like to themselves, it may at any time
be understood. But if one will ever stand as one's own critic, then those parts
which seem obscure will be attacked, and, being viewed from all sides, may be
soon turned into a possession. And just because such has not been the practice,
it has come to be the fact that some extremely valuable presentations of
doctrine and philosophy remain buried in earlier Theosophical books and
magazines, while those who once read them have gone feverishly on to other works
and forgotten that which might have enlightened them.

The Theosophist who delights to call himself practical and logical, an
abhorrer of mysticism, should try to see what the mystical Theosophist means,
and the mystic one should read carefully the words of the practical member to
the end that he may counterbalance himself. A wholly practical or entirely
mystical mind is not well balanced. And as long as the logical and practical man
in our ranks scouts mysticism and never reads it, so long will he remain
deformed and unbalanced in the eyes of those who see both sides, because he is
wrapped up in ideas and methods that are only right in their own domain. The
attitude of mind proposed is not to be observed only toward our literature and
the philosophy studied; it is to be that of every hour and applicable to our
dealings with our fellow-men. It will lead us to discern the common failings of
refusing to consider the thoughts expressed by another because his or her
personality is disagreeable to us. Often in our ranks we can find those who
never pay any attention to certain other members who they have decided cannot
reason properly or talk clearly. Now aside from all considerations of charity
and politeness, there is an occult law much lost sight of, and that is that
everyone is led insensibly by Karmic law to address others on these topics and
to afford an opportunity to the person addressed of taking a leap, so to say,
out of his own favorite way, and considering life as seen through the eyes of
another. This is often brought about, if we permit it, through the endeavor to
control the irritation or dullness caused by the way in which the other person
pre-
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sents the thought in his mind. But if we refuse to use the opportunity,
either by absolutely running away or by covering our minds with a hard coat of
indifference, the new and bright idea just trembling into the field of our
consciousness is thrown back and lost in the dark recesses of the mental plane.
Or, taking another view, we may under Karmic law be the one and only person just
then fitted to elucidate our brother's ideas, and we remain still the debtor to
him if we do not accept the opportunity. On either hand the result is demerit.

Let us, then, conquer self in the field indicated, and thus turn the inward
insidious enemy and deceiver into the friend and guide.

William Q. Judge

Branch Paper No. 5
August, 1890.

MEDITATION, CONCENTRATION, WILL

THESE three, meditation, concentration, will, have engaged the attention of
Theosophists perhaps more than any other three subjects. A canvass of opinions
would probably show that the majority of our reading and thinking members would
rather hear these subjects discussed and read definite directions about them
than any others in the entire field. They say they must meditate, they declare a
wish for concentration, they would like a powerful will, and they sigh for
strict directions, readable by the most foolish theosophist. It is a western cry
for a curriculum, a course, a staked path, a line and rule by inches and links.
Yet the path has long been outlined and described, so that any one could read
the directions whose mind had not been half-ruined by modem false education, and
memory rotted by the superficial methods of a superficial literature and a
wholly vain modern life.

Let us divide Meditation into two sorts. First is the meditation practiced at a
set time, or an occasional one, whether by design or from physiological
idiosyncrasy. Second is the meditation of an entire lifetime, that single thread
of intention, intentness, and desire running through the years stretching
between the cradle and the grave. For the first, in Patanjali's Aphorisms will
be found all needful rules and particularity. If these are studied and not
forgotten, then practice must give results. How many of those who reiterate the
call for instruction on this head have read that book, only to turn it down and
never again consider it? Far too many.

The mysterious subtle thread of a life meditation is that which is practiced
every hour by philosopher, mystic, saint, criminal, artist, artisan, and
merchant. It is pursued in respect to that on which the heart is set; it rarely
languishes; at times
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the meditating one greedily running after money, fame, and
power looks up briefly and sighs for a better life during a brief interval, but
the passing flash of a dollar or a sovereign recalls him to his modern senses,
and the old meditation begins again. Since all theosophists are here in the
social whirl I refer to, they can every one take these words to themselves as
they please. Very certainly, if their life meditation is fixed low down near the
ground, the results flowing to them from it will be strong, very lasting, and
related to the low level on which they work. Their semi-occasional meditations
will give precisely semi-occasional results in the long string of recurring
births.

"But then," says another, "what of concentration? We must have it. We wish it;
we lack it." Is it a piece of goods that you can buy it, do you think, or
something that will come to you just for the wishing? Hardly. In the way we
divided meditation into two great sorts, so we can divide concentration. One is
the use of an already acquired power on a fixed occasion, the other the deep and
constant practice of a power that has been made a possession. Concentration is
not memory, since the latter is known to act without our concentrating on
anything, and we know that centuries ago the old thinkers very justly called
memory a phantasy. But by reason of a peculiarity of the human mind the
associative part of memory is waked up the very instant concentration is
attempted. It is this that makes students weary and at last drives them away
from the pursuit of concentration. A man sits down to concentrate on the highest
idea he can formulate, and like a flash troops of recollections of all sorts of
affairs, old thoughts and impressions come before his mind, driving away the
great object he first selected, and concentration is at an end.

This trouble is only to be corrected by practice, by assiduity, by continuance.
No strange and complicated directions are needed. All we have to do is to try
and to keep on trying.

The subject of the Will has not been treated of much in theosophical works,
old or new. Patanjali does not go into it at all. It seems to be inferred by him
through his aphorisms.
p.318
Will is universal, and belongs to not only man and
animals, but also to every other natural kingdom. The good and bad man alike
have will, the child and the aged, the wise and the lunatic. It is therefore a
power devoid in itself of moral quality. That quality must be added by man.

So the truth must be that will acts according to desire, or, as the older
thinkers used to put it, "behind will stands desire." This is why the child, the
savage, the lunatic, and the wicked man so often exhibit a stronger will than
others. The wicked man has intensified his desires, and with that his will. The
lunatic has but few desires, and draws all his will force into these; the savage
is free from convention, from the various ideas, laws, rules, and suppositions
to which the civilized person is subject, and has nothing to distract his will.
So to make our will strong we must have fewer desires. Let those be high, pure,
and altruistic; they will give us strong will.

No mere practice will develop will per se, for it exists forever,
fully developed in itself. But practice will develop in us the power to call on
that will which is ours. Will and Desire lie at the doors of Meditation and
Concentration. If we desire truth with the same intensity that we had formerly
wished for success, money, or gratification, we will speedily acquire meditation
and possess concentration. If we do all our acts, small and great, every moment,
for the sake of the whole human race, as representing the Supreme Self, then
every cell and fibre of the body and inner man will be turned in one direction,
resulting in perfect concentration. This is expressed in the New Testament in
the statement that if the eye is single the whole body will be full of light,
and in the Bhagavad Gita it is still more clearly and comprehensively
given through the different chapters. In one it is beautifully put as the
lighting up in us of the Supreme One, who then becomes visible. Let us meditate
on that which is in us as the Highest Self, concentrate upon it, and will to
work for it as dwelling in every human heart.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE Irish Theosophist,
July 15, 1893

CULTURE OF CONCENTRATION

THE term most generally in use to express what is included under the above
title is SELF CULTURE. Now it seems to well enough express, for a time at least,
the practice referred to by those who desire to know the truth. But, in fact, it
is inaccurate from a theosophic standpoint.
For the self is held to be that designated in the Indian books as Ishwara, which
is a portion of the eternal spirit enshrined in each human body. That this is
the Indian view there is no doubt. The Bhagavad-Gita in Ch. 15 says that
an eternal portion of this spirit, "having assumed life in this world of life,
attracts the heart and the five senses which belong to nature. Whatever body
Ishwara enters or quits, it is connected with it by snatching those senses from
nature, even as the breeze snatches perfumes from their very bed. This spirit
approaches the objects of sense by presiding over the ear, the eye, the touch,
the taste, and the smell, and also over the heart"; and in an earlier chapter,
"the Supreme spirit within this body is called the Spectator and admonisher,
sustainer, enjoyer, great Lord, and also highest soul"; and again, "the Supreme
eternal soul, even when existing within - or connected with - the body, is not
polluted by the actions of the body."

Elsewhere in these books this same spirit is called the self, as in a
celebrated sentence which in Sanscrit is "Atmanam atmana, pashya," meaning,
"Raise the self by the self," and all through the Upanishads, where the self is
constantly spoken of as the same as the Ishwara of Bhagavad-Gita. Max
Muller thinks the word "self" expresses best in English the ideas of
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the
Upanishads on this head.

It therefore follows that such a thing as culture of this self, which in its
very nature is eternal, unchangeable, and unpollutable by any action, cannot be.
It is only from inadequacy of terms that students and writers using the English
tongue are compelled to say "self culture," while, when they say it, they admit
that they know the self cannot be cultured.

What they wish to express is, "such culture or practice to be pursued by us
as shall enable us, while on earth, to mirror forth the wisdom and fulfill the
behests of the self within, which is all wise and all good."

As the use of this term "self culture" demands a constant explanation either
outwardly declared or inwardly assented to, it is wise to discard it altogether
and substitute that which will express the practice aimed at without raising a
contradiction. For another reason also the term should be discarded. That is,
that it assumes a certain degree of selfishness, for, if we use it as referring
to something that we do only for ourself, we separate at once between us and the
rest of the human brotherhood. Only in one way can we use it without
contradiction or without explanation, and that is by admitting we selfishly
desire to cultivate ourselves, thus at once running against a prime rule in
theosophic life and one so often and so strenuously insisted on, that the idea
of personal self must be uprooted. Of course, as we will not negative this rule,
we thus again have brought before us the necessity for a term that does not
arouse contradictions. That new term should, as nearly as possible, shadow forth
the three essential things in the action, that is, the instrument, the act, and
the agent, as well as the incitement to action; or, knowledge itself, the thing
to be known or done, and the person who knows.

This term is CONCENTRATION. In the Indian books it is called Yoga. This is
translated also as Union, meaning a union with the Supreme Being, or, as it is
otherwise put, "the object of spiritual knowledge is the Supreme Being."

There are two great divisions of Yoga found in the ancient
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books, and they are
called Hatha-Yoga and Raj-Yoga.

Hatha-Yoga is a practical mortification of the body by means of which certain
powers are developed. It consists in the assumption of certain postures that aid
the work, and certain kinds of breathing that bring on changes in the system,
together with other devices. It is referred to in the 4th chapter of the
Bhagavad-Gita thus: "Some devotees sacrifice the sense of hearing and the
other senses in the fires of restraint; some offer objects of sense, such as
sound, in the fires of the senses. Some also sacrifice inspiration of breath in
expiration, and expiration in inspiration, by blocking up the channels of
inspiration and expiration, desirous of retaining their breath. Others, by
abstaining from food, sacrifice life in their life."

In various treatises these methods are set forth in detail, and there is no
doubt at all that by pursuing them one can gain possession of sundry abnormal
powers. There is risk, however, especially in the case of people in the West
where experienced gurus or teachers of these things are not found. These risks
consist in this, that while an undirected person is doing according to the rules
of Hatha-Yoga, he arouses about him influences that do him harm, and he also
carries his natural functions to certain states now and then when he ought to
stop for a while, but, having no knowledge of the matter, may go on beyond that
and produce injurious effects. Then, again, Hatha-Yoga is a difficult thing to
pursue, and one that must be pushed to the point of mastery and success. Few of
our Western people are by nature fitted for such continuous and difficult labor
on the mental and astral planes. Thus, being attracted to Hatha-Yoga by the
novelty of it, and by the apparent pay that it offers in visible physical
results, they begin without knowledge of the difficulty, and stopping after a
period of trial they bring down upon themselves consequences that are wholly
undesirable.

The greatest objection to it, however, is that it pertains to the material
and semi-material man, -roughly speaking, to the body, and what is gained
through it is lost at death.
p.322
The Bhagavad-Gita refers to this and describes what happens in these
words: "All of these, indeed, being versed in sacrifice, have their sins
destroyed by these sacrifices. But he alone reaches union with the Supreme being
who eats of the ambrosia left from a sacrifice." This means that the Hatha-Yoga
practice represents the mere sacrifice itself, whereas the other kind is the
ambrosia arising from the sacrifice, or "the perfection of spiritual
cultivation," and that leads to Nirvana. The means for attaining the "perfection
of spiritual cultivation" are found in Raj-Yoga, or, as we shall term it for the
present, Culture of Concentration.

When concentration is perfected, we are in a position to use the knowledge
that is ever within reach but which ordinarily eludes us continually. That which
is usually called knowledge is only an intellectual comprehension of the
outside, visible forms assumed by certain realities. Take what is called
scientific knowledge of minerals and metals. This is merely a classification of
material phenomena and an empirical acquisition. It knows what certain minerals
and metals are useful for, and what some of their properties are. Gold is known
to be pure, soft, yellow, and extremely ductile, and by a series of accidents it
has been discovered to be useful in medicine and the arts. But even to this day
there is a controversy, not wholly settled, as to whether gold is held
mechanically or chemically in crude ore. Similarly with minerals. The
crystalline forms are known and classified.

And yet a new theory has arisen, coming very near to the truth, that we do
not know matter in reality in this way, but only apprehend certain phenomena
presented to us by matter, and variously called, as the phenomena alter, gold,
wood, iron, stone, and so on. But whether the minerals, metals, and vegetables
have further properties that are only to be apprehended by still other and
undeveloped senses, science will not admit. Passing from inanimate objects to
the men and women about us, this ordinary intellectual knowledge aids us no more
than before. We see bodies with different names and of different races, but
below the outer phenomena our everyday intel-
p.323
lect will not carry us. This man we
suppose to have a certain character assigned to him after experience of his
conduct, but it is still only provisional, for none of us is ready to say that
we know him either in his good or his bad qualities. We know there is more to
him than we can see or reason about, but what, we cannot tell. It eludes us
continually. And when we turn to contemplate ourselves, we are just as ignorant
as we are about our fellow man. Out of this has arisen an old saying: "Every man
knows what he is, but no one knows what he will be."

There must be in us a power of discernment, the cultivation of which will
enable us to know whatever is desired to be known. That there is such a power is
affirmed by teachers of occultism, and the way to acquire it is by cultivating
concentration.

It is generally overlooked, or not believed, that the inner man who is the
one to have these powers has to grow up to maturity, just as the body has to
mature before its organs fulfill their functions fully. By inner man I do not
mean the higher self-the Ishwara before spoken of, but that part of us which is
called soul, or astral man, or vehicle, and so on. All these terms are subject
to correction, and should not be held rigidly to the meanings given by various
writers. Let us premise, first, the body now visible; second, the inner man -
not the spirit; and third, the spirit itself.

Now while it is quite true that the second-or inner man - has latent all the
powers and peculiarities ascribed to the astral body, it is equally true that
those powers are, in the generality of persons, still latent or only very
partially developed.

This inner being is, so to say, inextricably entangled in the body, cell for
cell and fibre for fibre. He exists in the body somewhat in the way the fibre of
the mango fruit exists in the mango. In that fruit we have the inside nut with
thousands of fine fibres spreading out from it through the yellow pulp around.
And as you eat it, there is great difficulty in distin-
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guishing the pulp from the fibre. So that the inner being of which we are speaking cannot do much when away
from his body, and is always influenced by it. It is not therefore easy to leave
the body at will and roam about in the double. The stories we hear of this as
being so easily done may be put down to strong imagination, vanity, or other
causes. One great cause for error in respect to these doubles is that a
clairvoyant is quite likely to mistake a mere picture of the person's thought
for the person himself. In fact, among occultists who know the truth, the
stepping out of the body at will and moving about the world is regarded as a
most difficult feat, and for the reasons above hinted at. Inasmuch as the person
is so interwoven with his body, it is absolutely necessary, before he can take
his astral form about the country, for him to first carefully extract it, fibre
by fibre, from the surrounding pulp of blood, bones, mucous, bile, skin, and
flesh. Is this easy? It is neither easy nor quick of accomplishment, nor all
done at one operation. It has to be the result of years of careful training and
numerous experiments. And it cannot be consciously done until the inner man has
developed and cohered into something more than irresponsible and quivering
jelly. This development and coherence are gained by perfecting the power of
concentration.

Nor is it true, as the matter has been presented to me by experiment and
teaching, that even in our sleep we go rushing about the country seeing our
friends and enemies or tasting earthly joys at distant points. In all cases
where the man has acquired some amount of concentration, it is quite possible
that the sleeping body is deserted altogether, but such cases are as yet not in
the majority.

Most of us remain quite close to our slumbering forms. It is not necessary
for us to go away in order to experience the different states of consciousness
which is the privilege of every man, but we do not go away over miles of country
until we are able, and we cannot be able until the necessary ethereal body has
been acquired and has learned how to use its powers.

Now, this ethereal body has its own organs which are the
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essence or real
basis of the senses described by men. The outer eye is only the instrument by
which the real power of sight experiences that which relates to sight; the ear
has its inner master - the power of hearing, and so on with every organ. These
real powers within flow from the spirit to which we referred at the beginning of
this paper. That spirit approaches the objects of sense by presiding over the
different organs of sense. And whenever it withdraws itself the organs cannot be
used. As when a sleep - walker moves about with open eyes which do not see
anything, although objects are there and the different parts of the eye are
perfectly normal and uninjured.

Ordinarily there is no demarcation to be observed between these inner organs
and the outer; the inner ear is found to be too closely interknit with the outer
to be distinguished apart. But when concentration has begun, the different inner
organs begin to awake, as it were, and to separate themselves from the chains of
their bodily counterparts. Thus the man begins to duplicate his powers. His
bodily organs are not injured, but remain for use upon the plane to which they
belong, and he is acquiring another set which he can use apart from the others
in the plane of nature peculiarly theirs.

We find here and there cases where certain parts of this inner body have been
by some means developed beyond the rest. Sometimes the inner head alone is
developed, and we have one who can see or hear clairvoyantly or clairaudiently;
again, only a hand is developed apart from the rest, all the other being
nebulous and wavering. It may be a right hand, and it will enable the owner to
have certain experiences that belong to the plane of nature to which the right
hand belongs, say the positive side of touch and feeling.

But in these abnormal cases there are always wanting the results of
concentration. They have merely protruded one portion, just as a lobster
extrudes his eye on the end of the structure which carries it. Or take one who
has thus curiously developed one of the inner eyes, say the left. This has a
relation to a plane of nature quite different from that appertaining
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to the
hand, and the results in experience are just as diverse. He will be a
clairvoyant of a certain order, only able to recognize that which relates to his
one-sided development, and completely ignorant of many other qualities inherent
in the thing seen or felt, because the proper organs needed to perceive them
have had no development. He will be like a two-dimensional being who cannot
possibly know that which three-dimensional beings know, or like ourselves as
compared with four-dimensional entities.

In the course of the growth of this ethereal body several things are to be
observed.

It begins by having a cloudy, wavering appearance, with certain centres of
energy caused by the incipiency of organs that correspond to the brain, heart,
lungs, spleen, liver, and so on. It follows the same course of development as a
solar system, and is, in fact, governed and influenced by the very solar
system to which the world belongs on which the being may be incarnate. With
us it is governed by our own solar orb.

If the practice of concentration be kept up, this cloudy mass begins to gain
coherence and to shape itself into a body with different organs. As they grow
they must be used. Essays are to be made with them, trials, experiments. In
fact, just as a child must creep before it can walk, and must learn walking
before it can run, so this ethereal man must do the same. But as the child can
see and hear much farther than it can creep or walk, so this being usually
begins to see and to hear before it can leave the vicinity of the body on any
lengthy journey.

Certain hindrances then begin to manifest themselves which, when properly
understood by us, will give us good substantial reasons for the practicing of
the several virtues enjoined in holy books and naturally included under the term
of Universal Brotherhood.

One is that sometimes it is seen that this nebulous forming body is violently
shaken, or pulled apart, or burst into fragments that at once have a tendency to
fly back into the body and take on the same entanglement that we spoke of at
first. This is caused by anger, and this is why the sages all dwell
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upon the need of calmness. When the student allows anger to arise, the influence
of it is at once felt by the ethereal body, and manifests itself in an
uncontrollable trembling which begins at the centre and violently pulls apart
the hitherto coherent particles. If allowed to go on it will disintegrate the
whole mass, which will then reassume its natural place in the body. The effect
following this is, that a long time has to elapse before the ethereal body can
be again created. And each time this happens the result is the same. Nor does it
make any difference what the cause for the anger may be. There is no such thing
as having what is called "righteous anger" in this study and escaping these
inevitable consequences. Whether your "rights" have been unjustly and flagrantly
invaded or not does not matter. The anger is a force that will work itself out
in its appointed way. Therefore anger must be strictly avoided, and it cannot be
avoided unless charity and love- absolute toleration-are cultivated.

But anger may be absent and yet still another thing happen. The ethereal form
may have assumed quite a coherence and definiteness. But it is observed that,
instead of being pure and clear and fresh, it begins to take on a cloudy and
disagreeable color, the precursor of putrefaction, which invades every part and
by its effects precludes any further progress, and at last reacts upon the
student so that anger again manifests itself. This is the effect of envy. Envy
is not a mere trifle that produces no physical result. It has a powerful action,
as strong in its own field as that of anger. It not only hinders the further
development, but attracts to the student's vicinity thousands of malevolent
beings of all classes that precipitate themselves upon him and wake up or bring
on every evil passion. Envy, therefore, must be extirpated, and it cannot be got
rid of as long as the personal idea is allowed to remain in us.

Another effect is produced on this ethereal body by vanity. Vanity represents
the great illusion of nature. It brings up before the soul all sorts of
erroneous or evil pictures, or both, and drags the judgment so away that once
more anger or
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envy will enter, or such course be pursued that violent
destruction by outside causes falls upon the being. As in one case related to
me. The man had made considerable progress, but at last allowed vanity to rule.
This was followed by the presentation to his inner sight of most extraordinary
images and ideas, which in their turn so affected him that he attracted to his
sphere hordes of elementals seldom known to students and quite indescribable in
English. These at last, as is their nature, laid siege to him, and one day
produced all about the plane of his astral body an effect similar in some
respects to that which follows an explosion of the most powerful explosive known
to science. The consequence was, his ethereal form was so suddenly fractured
that by repercussion the whole nature of the man was altered, and he soon died
in a madhouse after having committed the most awful excesses.

And vanity cannot be avoided except by studiously cultivating that
selflessness and poverty of heart advised as well by Jesus of Nazareth as by
Buddha.

Another hindrance is fear. This is not, however, the worst of all, and is one
that will disappear by means of knowledge, for fear is always the son of
ignorance. Its effect on the ethereal form is to shrivel it up, or coagulate and
contract it. But as knowledge increases, that contraction abates, permitting the
person to expand. Fear is the same thing as frigidity on the earth, and always
proceeds by the process of freezing.

In my next the subject will be further developed.

RAMATIRTHA Path, July, 1888

CULTURE OF CONCENTRATION
PART II

IT is now over one year since I sent in Part I to the Editor of the PATH.
Since then I have heard that some students expressed a desire to read Part II,
forgetting to observe, perhaps, that the first paper was complete in itself,
and, if studied, with earnest practice to follow, would have led to beneficial
results. It has not been necessary before to write No. II; and to the various
students who so soon after reading the first have asked for the second I plainly
say that you have been led away because a sequel was indicated and you cannot
have studied the first; furthermore I much doubt if you will be benefited by
this any more than by the other.

Success in the culture of concentration is not for him who sporadically attempts
it. It is a thing that flows from "a firm position assumed with regard to the
end in view, and unremittingly kept up." Nineteenth Century students are too apt
to think that success in occultism can be reached as one attains success in
school or college, by reading and learning printed words. A complete
knowledge of all that was ever written upon concentration will confer no power
in the practice of that about which I treat. Mere book knowledge is derided in
this school as much as it is by the clodhopper; not that I think book knowledge
is to be avoided, but that sort of acquisition without the concentration is as
useless as faith
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without works. It is called in some places, I believe, "mere
eye-knowledge." Such indeed it is; and such is the sort of culture most
respected in these degenerate times.

In starting these papers the true practice was called Raj Yoga. It discards
those physical motions, postures, and recipes relating solely to the present
personality, and directs the student to virtue and altruism as the bases from
which to start. This is more often rejected than accepted. So much has been said
during the last 1800 years about Rosicrucians, Egyptian Adepts, Secret Masters,
Kaballah, and wonderful magical books, that students without a guide, attracted
to these subjects, ask for information and seek in vain for the entrance to the
temple of the learning they crave, because they say that virtue's rules are
meant for babes and Sunday-schools, but not for them. And, in consequence, we
find hundreds of books in all the languages of Europe dealing with rites,
ceremonies, invocations, and other obscurities that will lead to nothing but
loss of time and money. But few of these authors had anything save "mere
eye-knowledge." 'Tis true they have sometimes a reputation, but it is only that
accorded to an ignoramus by those who are more ignorant. The so-called great
man, knowing how fatal to reputation it would be to tell how really small is his
practical knowledge, prates about "projections and elementals," "philosopher's
stone and elixir," but discreetly keeps from his readers the paucity of his
acquirements and the insecurity of his own mental state. Let the seeker know,
once for all, that the virtues cannot be discarded nor ignored; they must be
made a part of our life, and their philosophical basis must be understood.
But it may be asked, if in the culture of concentration we will succeed alone by
the practice of virtue. The answer is No, not in this life, but perhaps one day
in a later life. The life of virtue accumulates much merit; that merit will at
some time cause one to be born in a wise family where the real practice of
concentration may perchance begin; or it may cause one to be born in a family of
devotees or those far advanced on the Path, as said in Bhagavad-Gita. But
such a birth as
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this, says Krishna, is difficult to obtain; hence the virtues alone will not
always lead in short space to our object.

We must make up our minds to a life of constant work upon this line. The lazy
ones or they who ask for pleasure may as well give it up at the threshold and be
content with the pleasant paths marked out for those who "fear God and honor the
King." Immense fields of investigation and experiment have to be traversed;
dangers unthought of and forces unknown are to be met; and all must be overcome,
for in this battle there is no quarter asked or given. Great stores of
knowledge must be found and seized. The kingdom of heaven is not to be had for
the asking; it must be taken by violence. And the only way in which we can gain
the will and the power to thus seize and hold is by acquiring the virtues on the
one hand, and minutely understanding ourselves on the other. Some day we will
begin to see why not one passing thought may be ignored, not one flitting
impression missed. This we can perceive is no simple task. It is a gigantic
work. Did you ever reflect that the mere passing sight of a picture, or a single
word instantly lost in the rush of the world, may be basis for a dream that will
poison the night and react upon the brain next day. Each one must be examined.
If you have not noticed it, then when you awake next day you have to go back in
memory over every word and circumstance of the preceding day, seeking, like the
astronomer through space, for the lost one. And, similarly, without such a
special reason, you must learn to be able to go thus backward into your days so
as to go over carefully and in detail all that happened, all that you permitted
to pass through the brain. Is this an easy matter?

But let us for a moment return to the sham adepts, the reputed Masters, whether
they were well-intentioned or the reverse. Take Eliphas Levi, who wrote so many
good things, and whose books contain such masses of mysterious hints. Out of his
own mouth he convicts himself. With great show he tells of the raising of the
shade of Apollonius. Weeks beforehand all sorts of preparations had to be made,
and on the
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momentous night absurd necromantic performances were gone through.
What was the result? Why only that the so-called shade appeared for a few
moments, and Levi says they never attempted it again. Any good medium of these
days could call up the shade of Apollonius without preparation, and if Levi were
an Adept he could have seen the dead quite as easily as he turned to his picture
in a book. By these sporadic attempts and outside preparations, nothing is
really gained but harm to those who thus indulge. And the foolish dabbling by
American theosophists with practices of the Yogis of India that are not
one-eighth understood and which in themselves are inadequate, will lead to much
worse results than the apochryphal attempt recorded by Eliphas Levi.

As we have to deal with the Western mind now ours, all unused as it is to these
things and over-burdened with false training and falser logic, we must begin
where we are, we must examine our present possessions and grow to know our own
present powers and mental machinery. This done, we may proceed to see ourselves
in the way that shall bring about the best result.

RAMATIRTHA

Path, February, 1890

OCCULTISM: WHAT IS IT?

NOT only in the Theosophical Society, but out of it, are tyros in Occultism.
They are dabblers in a fine art, a mighty science, an almost impenetrable
mystery. The motives that bring them to the study are as various as the number
of individuals engaged in it, and as hidden from even themselves as is the
center of the earth from the eye of science. Yet the motive is more
important than any other factor.

These dilettanti in this science have always been abroad. No age or country has
been without them, and they have left after them many books - of no particular
value. Those of today are making them now, for the irresistible impulse of
vanity drives them to collate the more or less unsound hypotheses of their
predecessors, which, seasoned with a proper dash of mystery, are put forth to
the crowd of those who would fain acquire wisdom at the cost-price of a book.
Meanwhile the world of real occultists smiles silently, and goes on with the
laborious process of sifting out the living germs from the masses of men. For
occultists must be found and fostered and prepared for coming ages when power
will be needed and pretension will go for nothing.

But the persons now writing about occultism and competent to do any more than
repeat unproved formulae and assertions left over from mediaeval days, are few
in number. It is very easy to construct a book full of so-called occultism taken
from French or German books, and then to every now and then stop the reader
short by telling him that it is not wise to reveal any more. The writings of
Christian in France give
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much detail about initiations into occultism, but he
honestly goes no further than to tell what he has gained from Greek and Latin
fragments. Others, however, have followed him, repeated his words without
credit, and as usual halted at the explanation.

There are, again, others who, while asserting that there is magic science called
occultism, merely advise the student to cultivate purity and spiritual
aspirations, leaving it to be assumed that powers and knowledge will follow.
Between these two, theosophists of the self-seeking or the unselfish type are
completely puzzled. Those who are selfish may learn by bitter disappointment and
sad experience; but the unselfish and the earnest need encouragement on the one
hand and warning on the other. As an Adept wrote years ago to London
Theosophists: "He who does not feel equal to the work need not undertake a task
too heavy for him." This is applicable to all, for every one should be informed
of the nature and heaviness of the task. Speaking of this tremendous thing -
Occultism - Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita says: "During a considerable
period of time this doctrine has been lost in the world.... This mystery is very
important." We do not think that the doctrine has yet been restored to the
world, albeit that it is in the keeping of living men - the Adepts. And in
warning those who strive after occultism with a selfish motive he declares:
"Confused by many worldly thoughts, surrounded by the meshes of bewilderment,
devoted to the enjoyment of their desires, they descend to foul Naraka . . . and
hence they proceed to the lowest plane of being."

In what, then, does the heaviness of the Occultist's task consist? In the
immensity of its sweep as well as the infinitude of its detail. Mere sweet and
delightful longing after God will not of itself accomplish it, nor is progress
found in aspiring to self-knowledge, even when as a result of that is
found partial illumination. These are excellent; but we are talking of a problem
whose implacable front yields to nothing but force, and that force must
be directed by knowledge.

The field is not emotional, for the play of the emotions de-
p.335
stroys the
equilibrium essential to the art. Work done calling for reward avails not unless
it has produced knowledge.

A few examples will show that in Occult Science there is a vastness and also
a multiplicity of division not suspected by theosophical Occultists in embryo.

The element of which fire is a visible effect is full of centres of force.
Each one is ruled by its own law. The aggregate of centres and the laws
governing them which produce certain physical results are classed by science as
laws in physics, and are absolutely ignored by the book-making Occultist because
he has no knowledge of them. No dreamer or even a philanthropist will ever as
such know those laws. And so on with all the other elements.

The Masters of Occultism state that a law of "transmutation among forces"
prevails forever. It will baffle any one who has not the power to calculate the
value of even the smallest tremble of a vibration, not only in itself but
instantly upon its collision with another, whether that other be similar to it
or different. Modern science admits the existence of this law as the correlation
of forces. It is felt in the moral sphere of our being as well as in the
physical world, and causes remark-able changes in a man's character and
circumstances quite beyond us at present and altogether unknown to science and
metaphysics.

It is said that each person has a distinct mathematical value expressed by
one number. This is a compound or resultant of numberless smaller values. When
it is known, extraordinary effects may be produced not only in the mind of the
person but also in his feelings, and this number may be discovered by certain
calculations more recondite than those of our higher mathematics. By its use the
person may be made angry without cause, and even insane or full of happiness,
just as the operator desires.

There is a world of beings known to the Indians as that of the Devas, whose
inhabitants can produce illusions of a character the description of which would
throw our wildest ro-
p.336
mances into the shade. They may last five minutes and seem
as a thousand years, or they may extend over ten thousand actual years. Into
this world the purest theosophist, the most spiritual man or woman, may go
without consent, unless the knowledge and power are possessed which prevent it.

On the threshold of all these laws and states of being linger forces and
beings of an awful and determined character. No one can avoid them, as they are
on the road that leads to knowledge, and they are every now and then awakened or
perceived by those who, while completely ignorant on these subjects, still
persist in dabbling with charms and necromantic practices.

It is wiser for theosophists to study the doctrine of brotherhood and its
application, to purify their motives and actions, so that after patient work for
many lives, if necessary, in the great cause of humanity, they may at last reach
that point where all knowledge and all power will be theirs by right.

EUSEBIO URBAN
Path, May, 1890

CONSIDERATIONS ON MAGIC

WE hear a good deal nowadays and are likely to hear still more of occult
science. In this regard we may as well accept the inevitable. All things have
their day, and all things revolve in cycles; they come and go, and come again,
though never twice the same. Even our very thoughts conform to this universal
law. The life, the teachings, and the fate of Pythagoras are involved in
mystery, but the fate of the schools which he established and of the followers
who succeeded him are matters of history. The slaughter of the Magi stands over
against the abuses and abominations which are perpetrated in their name, and
doubtless by many styling themselves Magicians.

It is not the object of this brief paper to attempt to define magic, or
elucidate occult Science as such, but rather to suggest a few considerations
which are of vital import at the present time, equally important to those who
utterly deny to magic any more than an imaginative basis, as to those who
convinced of its existence as a science, are, or are to become investigators. In
both the publications and conversations of the day, frequently occur the
expressions "black magic," and "white magic," and those who follow these studies
are designated as followers of the "left hand path," or the "right
hand path." It ought to be understood that up to a certain point all
students of magic, or occultism, journey together. By and by is reached a
place where two roads meet, or where the common path divides, and the
awful voice from the silence, heard only in the recesses of the individual
soul utters the stern command: "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve."
Instead of black and white magic, read, black and white motive.
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The student of occultism is rushing on his destiny, but up to a certain point
that destiny is in his own hands, though he is constantly shaping his course,
freeing his soul from the trammels of sense and self, or becoming entangled in
the web, which, with warp and woof will presently clothe him as with a garment
without a seam.

If early in the race he finds it difficult to shake off his chains, let him
remember that at every step they grow more and more tyrannical, and often before
the goal is reached where the ways divide, the battle is lost or won, and the
decision there is only a matter of form. That decision once made is irrevocable,
or so nearly so that no exception need be made. Man lives at once in two worlds:
the natural and the spiritual, and as in the natural plane he influences his
associates, and is in turn influenced by them, so let him not imagine that in
the spiritual plane he is alone. This will be a fatal mistake for the dabbler in
magic, or the student in occultism. Throughout this vast universe, the good will
seek the good, and the evil the evil, each will be unconsciously drawn to its
own kind.

But when man faces his destiny in full consciousness of the issues involved, as
he must before the final decision is reached, he will be no longer unconscious
of these influences, but will recognize his companions: companions, alas! no
longer, Masters now, inhuman, pitiless; and the same law of attraction
which has led him along the tortuous path, unveils its face, and by affinity of
evil, the slave stands in the presence of his master, and the fiends that have
all along incited him to laugh at the miseries of his fellow men, and trample
under his feet every kindly impulse, every tender sympathy, now make the
measureless hells within his own soul resound with their laughter at him, the
poor deluded fool whose selfish pride and ambition have stifled and at last
obliterated his humanity.

Blind indeed is he who cannot see why those who are in possession of arcane
wisdom, hesitate in giving it out to the world, and when in the cycles of time
its day has come, they put forth the only doctrine which has power to save and
bless, UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD, with all that the term implies.
p.339
There may be those who have already in this new era, entered the left-hand road.
But now as of old, "by their works ye shall know them." To labor with them is in
vain. Selfishness, pride and lust for power are the signs by which we may know
them. They may not at once cast off disguise, and they will never deceive the
true Theosophist. They can nevertheless deceive to their ruin the ignorant, the
curious, the unwary, and it is for such as these that these lines are penned,
and the worst of it is, that these poor deluded souls, are led to believe that
no such danger exists, and this belief is fortified by the so-called scientists,
who are quoted as authority, and who ridicule everything but rank materialism.
Yet notwithstanding all this, these simple souls flutter like moths around the
flame till they are drawn within the vortex. It is better a million times, that
the proud, the selfish and time-serving should eat, drink and be merry, and let
occultism alone, for these propensities unless speedily eradicated, will bear
fruit and ripen into quick harvests, and the wages thereof is death, literally
the "second death."

The purpose of Theosophy is to eradicate these evil tendencies of man, so
that whether on the ordinary planes of daily life, or in the higher occult
realms, the Christ shall be lifted up, and draw all men unto him.

Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.

The Christs of all the ages have preached this one doctrine: Charity and
Brotherhood of Man. To deny the law of charity is to deny the Christ. The
Theosophical Society is not responsible for unveiling to the present generation
the occult nature of man. Modern Spiritualism had already done this; nor is the
responsibility to be charged to the Spiritualists, for these unseen forces had
revealed themselves in the fullness of time, and many millions had become
convinced, many against their wills, of the reality of the unseen universe.
These things are here, and neither crimination, or recrimination is of any use.
The responsibility therefore, rests entirely with the individual, as to what use
he makes of his opportunities, as to his pur-
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poses and aims, and as he advances
in his course, involved in the circle of necessity, he influences whether he
will or no, those whose spheres of life touch at any point his own. As ye
sow, so shall ye also reap. By and by the cycle will close and both the evil
and the good will return like bread cast upon the waters. This is a law of all
life.

Imagine not that they are weak and vacillating souls who enter the left-hand
road: Lucifer was once a prince of light, admitted to the councils of the Most
High. He fell through pride, and dragged downward in his fall all who worshipped
the demon pride. This is no foolish fable, but a terrible tragedy, enacted at
the gates of paradise, in the face of the assembled universe, and reenacted in
the heart of man, the epitome of all. Only Infinite pity can measure the
downfall of such an one, only Infinite love disarm by annihilation, and so put
an end to unendurable woe, and that only when the cycle is complete, the measure
of iniquity balanced by its measure of pain. Occultism and magic are not
child's-play, as many may learn to their sorrow, as many visitants of dark
circles have already and long ago discovered. Better give dynamite to our
children as a plaything, than Magic to the unprincipled, the thoughtless, the
selfish and ignorant. Let all who have joined the Theosophical Society remember
this, and search their hearts before taking the first step in any magical
formulary. The motive determines all. Occult power brings with it unknown
and unmeasured responsibility.

If in the secret councils of the soul, where no eye can see, and no thought
deceive that divine spark conscience, we are ready to forget self, to forego
pride, and labor for the well-being of man, then may the upright man face his
destiny, follow this guide and fear no evil. Otherwise it were far better that a
millstone were hung about his neck, and he were cast into the depths of the sea.

PYTHAGORAS
Path, March, 1887

OF OCCULT POWERS AND
THEIR ACQUIREMENT

THERE are thousands of people in the United States, as well in the ranks of
the Society as outside, who believe that there are certain extraordinary occult
powers to be encompassed by man. Such powers as thought reading, seeing events
yet to come, unveiling the motives of others, apportation of objects, and the
like, are those most sought after, and nearly all desired with a selfish end in
view. The future is inquired into so as to enable one to speculate in stocks and
another to circumvent competitors. These longings are pandered to here and there
by men and societies who hold out delusive hopes to their dupes that, by the
payment of money, the powers of nature may be invoked.

Even some of our own members have not been guiltless of seeking after such
wonderful fruit of knowledge with those who would barter the Almighty, if they
could, for gold.

Another class of earnest theosophists, however, have taken a different
ground. They have thought that certain Adepts who really possess power over
nature, who can both see and hear through all space, who can transport solid
objects through space and cause written messages to appear at a distance with
beautiful sounds of astral bells, ought to intervene, and by the exercise of the
same power make these earnest disciples hear sounds ordinarily called occult,
and thus easily transmit information and help without the aid of telegraph or
mail-boat. But that these Beings will not do this has been stated over and over
again; for the kingdom of heaven is not given away, it must be "taken by
violence." It lies there before us to be entered upon and occupied, but that can
be only after
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a battle which, when won, entitles the victor to remain in
undisturbed possession.

As many have seemed to forget these rules, I thought it well to offer them
the following words from one of those very Adepts they seek to meet:

The educing of the faculty of hearing occult sounds would be not at all the
easy matter you imagine. It was never done to any one of us, for the iron rule
is that what powers one gets he must himself acquire, and when acquired
and ready for use, the powers lie dumb and dormant in their potentiality like
the wheels in a music box, and only then it is easy to wind the key and start
them....Yet every earnestly-disposed man may acquire such powers
practically; that is the finality of it. There are no more distinctions of
persons in this than there are as to whom the sun shall shine upon or the air
give vitality to. There are powers of all nature before you; take what you
can.

This is perfectly clear and strictly according to the Secret Canon. "When the
materials are all prepared and ready, the architect shall appear"; and when we
have acquired the powers we seek, by educing them ourselves from our
inner being, the Master will then be ready and able to start into exercise that
which we have obtained.

But-even here is an important point. If the Master can, so to say, wind the
key and thus start the machinery, He can also refuse to give the necessary
impulse. For reasons that have to do with the motives and life of students, it
may be advisable for a while not to permit the exercise of these powers which
"lie dumb and dormant in their potentiality." To sanction their use might in one
lead to the ruin of other lives, or in another to personal disaster and
retardation of true progress.

Therefore the Master says that quite often he may not only refuse to give the
start, but yet further may prevent the wheels from moving.

THERE ARE THE POWERS OF ALL NATURE BEFORE YOU; TAKE WHAT YOU CAN.

Rodriguez Undiano

Path, February, 1889.

GLAMOURITS PURPOSE
AND PLACE IN MAGICNOTE—This
article was first printed by William Q. Judge in the Path, May,
1893.

THE
word “glamour” was long ago defined in old dictionaries as “witchery or a charm
on the eyes, making them see things differently from what they really are.” This
is still the meaning of the word. Not long ago, before the strange things
possible in hypnotic experiments became known to the Western world, it seemed as
if everything would be reduced to mere matter and motion by the fiat of science.
Witchery was to fade away, be forgotten, be laughed out of sight, and what could
not be ascribed to defective training of the senses was to have its explanation
in the state of the liver, a most prosaic organ. But before science with its
speculation and ever-altering canons could enlighten the unlearned multitude,
hypnotism crept slowly and surely forward and at last began to buttress the
positions of theosophy. Glamour stands once more a fair chance for recognition.
Indeed, H. P. B. uttered prophetic words when she said that in America more than
anywhere else this art would be practised by selfish men for selfish purposes,
for money-getting and gratification of desire.

Hurriedly glancing over some fields of folk-lore, see what a
mass of tales bearing on glamour produced by men, gods, or elementals. In India
the gods every now and then, often the sages, appear before certain persons in
various guises by means of a glamour which causes the eye to see what is not
really there. In Ireland volumes of tales in which the person sees houses, men,
and animals where they are not; he is suddenly given the power to see under the
skin of natural things, and then perceives the field or the market-place full of
fairies,
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men, and women gliding in and out among the people. Anon a man or woman
is changed into the appearance of animal or bird, and only regains the old
semblance when touched with the magic rod. This change of appearance is not a
change in fact, but always a glamour affecting the eyes of the other person.
Such a mass of similar stories found during all time and among every people
cannot be due to folly nor be without a basis. The basis is a fact and a law in
man’s nature. It is glamour, the reason for glamour, and the power to bring it
about. Just because there have always been those who, either by natural ability
or training, had the power to bring on a “witchery over the eyes,” these stories
have arisen.

A writer well known in England and America once thought he
had found a mare’s nest when he reported that Mme. Blavatsky had confessed to
him that certain phenomena he enquired of had been caused by glamour.

“Ah, glamour!” he said; “thus falls this theosophic house of
cards”; and he went away satisfied, for in truth he had been himself thoroughly
glamoured. But theosophists should not stumble and fall violently as this
gentleman did over a word which, when enquired into, carries with it a good deal
of science relating to an important branch of occultism. When I read in an issue
of the Arena all about this confession on glamour, I was quite ready to
believe that H. P. B. did say to the learned enquirer what he reported, but at
the same time, of course, knew that she never intended to apply her enchantment
explanation to every phenomenon. She only intended to include certain
classes,—although in every occult phenomenon there is some glamour upon some of
the observers according to their individual physical idiosyncrasies.

The classes of phenomena covered by this word are referred to
in part by Patanjali in his Yoga Aphorisms, where he says that if the
luminousness natural to object and eye is interfered with the object will
disappear, whether it be man or thing and whether it be day or night. This
little aphorism covers a good deal of ground, and confutes, if accepted, some
theories of the day. It declares, in fact, that not only is it
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necessary for
rays of light to proceed from the object to the eye, but also light must also
proceed from the eye towards the object. Cut off the latter and the object
disappears; alter the character of the luminousness coming from the eye, and the
object is altered in shape or color for the perceiver.

Carrying this on further and connecting it with the
well-known fact that we see no objects whatever, but only their ideal form as
presented to the mind, and we arrive at an explanation in part of how glamour
may be possible. For if in any way you can interfere with the vibrations
proceeding to the eye on the way to affect the brain and then the percipient
within, then you have the possibility of sensibly altering the ideal form which
the mind is to cognize within before it declares the object to be without which
produced the vibration.

Take up now imagination in its aspect of a power to make a
clear and definite image. This is done in hypnotism and in spiritualism. If the
image be definite enough and the perceiver or subject sensitive enough, a
glamour will be produced. The person will see that which is not the normal shape
or form or corporature of the other. But this new shape is as real as the
normal, for the normal form is but that which is to last during a certain stage
of human evolution and will certainly alter as new senses and organs develop in
us.

Thus far having gone, is it not easy to see that if a person
can make the definite and vivid mind-pictures spoken of, and if the minor organs
can affect and be affected, it is quite probable and possible that trained
persons may have glamoured the eyes of others so to make them see an elephant,
snake, man, tree, pot, or any other object where only is empty space, or as an
alteration of a thing or person actually there? This is exactly what is done in
experiments by the hypnotists, with this difference, that they have to put the
subject into an abnormal state, while the other operators need no such
adventitious aids. Glamour, then, has a very important place in magic. That it
was frequently used by H. P. B. there is not the smallest doubt, just as there
is no doubt that the yogee in India puts the same power into operation.
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In many cases she could have used it by making the persons
present think they saw her when she had gone into the next room, or that another
person was also present who was not in fact. The same power of glamour would
permit her to hide from sight any object in the room or in her hands. This is
one of the difficult feats of magic, and not in the slightest degree dependent
on legerdemain. Persons sometimes say this is folly even if true, but looked at
in another light it is no folly, nor are the cases those in which anyone was
entitled to know all that was going on. She exhibited these feats — seldom as it
was—for the purpose of showing those who were learning from her that the human
subject is a complicated and powerful being, not to be classed, as science so
loves to do, with mere matter and motion. All these phenomena accomplished two.
objects. First, to help those who learned from her, and second, to spread abroad
again in the west the belief in man’s real power and nature. The last was a most
necessary thing to do because in the West materialism was beginning to have too
much sway and threatened to destroy spirituality. And it was done also in
pursuance of the plans of the Great Lodge for the human race. As one of her
Masters said, her phenomena puzzled sceptics for many years. Even now we see the
effects, for when such men as Stead, the Editor of the Review of Reviews,
and Du Prel, Schiaparelli, and others take up the facts of Spiritualism
scientifically, one can perceive that another day for psychology is dawning.

This power of glamour is used more often than people think,
and not excluding members of the T. S., by the Adepts. They are often among us
from day to day appearing in a guise we do not recognize, and are dropping ideas
into men’s minds about the spiritual world and the true life of the soul, as
well as also inciting men and women to good acts. By this means they pass
unrecognized and are able to accomplish more in this doubting and transition age
than they could in any other way. Sometimes as they pass they are recognized by
those who have the right faculty, but a subtle and powerful bond and agreement
prevents their secret from being divulged.
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This is something for members of the
Society to think of, for they may be entertaining now and then angels unawares.
They may now and then be tried by their leaders when they least expect it, and
the verdict is not given out but has its effect all the same.

But glamour covers only a small part of the field of
occultism. The use of the astral body enters into nearly all of the phenomena,
and in other directions the subject of occult chemistry, absolutely unknown to
the man of the day, is of the utmost importance; if it is ever given out it will
be a surprise to science, but certainly that divulgation will not soon be to
such a selfish age.
WILLIAM BREHON Path, May, 1893

TRUE PROGRESSIS IT AIDED BY WATCHING THE ASTRAL LIGHT?

PERHAPS those who have engaged in discussions about whether it is more
advisable to become acquainted with the Astral Plane and to see therein than to
study the metaphysics and ethics of theosophy, may be aided by the experience of
a fellow student. For several years I studied about and experimented on the
Astral Light to the end that I might, if possible, develop the power to look
therein and see those marvelous pictures of that place which tempt the observer.
But although in some degrees success followed my efforts so far as seeing these
strange things was concerned, I found no increase of knowledge as to the manner
in which the pictures were made visible, nor as to the sources from which they
arose. A great many facts were in my possession, but the more I accumulated the
farther away from perception seemed the law governing them. I turned to a
teacher and he said:

"Beware of the illusions of matter."

"But," said I, "is this matter into which I gaze?"

"Yes; and of grosser sort than that which composes your body; full of
illusions, swarming with beings inimical to progress, and crowded with the
thoughts of all the wicked who have lived."

"How," replied I, "am I to know aught about it unless I investigate it?"

"It will be time enough to do that when you shall have been equipped properly
for the exploration. He who ventures into a strange country unprovided with
needful supplies, with-
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out a compass and unfamiliar with the habits of the
people, is in danger. Examine and see."

Left thus to myself, I sought those who had dabbled in the Astral Light, who
were accustomed to seeing the pictures therein every day, and asked them to
explain. Not one had any theory, any philosophical basis. All were confused and
at variance each with the other. Nearly all, too, were in hopeless ignorance as
to other and vital questions. None were self-contained or dispassionate; moved
by contrary winds of desire, each one appeared abnormal; for, while in
possession of the power to see or hear in the Astral Light, there were
unregulated in all other departments of their being. Still more, they seemed to
be in a degree intoxicated with the strangeness of the power, for it placed them
in that respect above other persons, yet in practical affairs left them without
any ability.

Examining more closely, I found that all these "seers" were but
half-seers-and hardly even that. One could hear astral sounds but could not see
astral sights; another saw pictures, but no sound or smell was there; still
others saw symbols only, and each derided the special power of the other.
Turning even to the great Emanuel Swedenborg, I found a seer of wonderful power,
but whose constitution made him see in the Astral world a series of pictures
which were solely an extension of his own inherited beliefs. And although he had
had a few visions of actual everyday affairs occurring at a distance, there were
so few as only to be remarkable.

One danger warned against by the teacher was then plainly evident. It was the
danger of becoming confused and clouded in mind by the recurrence of pictures
which had no salutary effect so far as experience went. So again I sought the
teacher and asked:

"Has the Astral Light no power to teach, and, if not, why is it thus? And are
there other dangers than what I have discovered?"

"No power whatever has the astral plane, in itself, to teach you. It contains
the impressions made by men in their ignorance and folly. Unable to arouse the
true thoughts, they con-
p.350
tinue to infect that light with the virus of their
unguided lives. And you, or any other seer, looking therein will warp and
distort all that you find there. It will present to you pictures that partake
largely of your own constitutional habits, weaknesses, and peculiarities. Thus
you only see a distorted or exaggerated copy of yourself. It will never teach
you the reason of things, for it knows them not.

"But stranger dangers than any you have met are there when one goes further
on. The dweller of the threshold is there, made up of all the evil that man has
done. None can escape its approach, and he who is not prepared is in danger of
death, of despair, or of moral ruin. Devote yourself, therefore, to spiritual
aspiration and to true devotion, which will be a means for you to learn the
causes that operate in nature, how they work, and what each one works upon."

I then devoted myself as he had directed, and discovered that a philosophical
basis, once acquired, showed clearly how to arrive at dispassion and made
exercise therein easy. It even enables me to clear up the thousand doubts
that assail those others who are peering into the Astral Light. They compelled
the disciple to abjure all occult practices until such time as he had laid a
sure foundation of logic, philosophy, and ethics; and only then was he permitted
to go further in that strange country from which many an unprepared explorer has
returned bereft of truth and sometimes despoiled of reason. Further, I know that
the Masters of the Theosophical Society have written these words: "Let the
Theosophical Society flourish through moral worth and philosophy, and give up
the pursuit of phenomena." Shall we be greater than They, and ignorantly set the
pace upon the path that leads to ruin?

BRYAN
KINNAVAN

Path, July, 1890

SHALL WE TEACH CLAIRVOYANCE?
A NOTE OF WARNING

MY attention has been arrested by the address delivered in the Adyar course
by Dr. Daly and reported in the September Theosophist. It is entitled
"Clairvoyance."

Coming out in the Adyar course, it has a certain flavor of authority which will
appeal to many members of the Society and may cause them to adopt the
suggestions for practice given in the latter part of the address. Yet at the
same time it is very true that the Theosophical Society is not responsible for
the utterances of members in their private capacity.

The fact that clairvoyance is a power sought after by many persons cannot be
disputed, but the questions, Is it well to try to develop clairvoyance? and
Shall we teach it? have not yet been definitely decided. Hence I may be
permitted to give my views upon them.

At the outset I desire to declare my personal attitude on these questions and my
beliefs as to facts. In using the term "clairvoyance" I intend to include in it
all clear perception on that plane.

I. I have for many years been convinced by proofs furnished by others and
from personal experience that clairvoyance is a power belonging to man's s
inner nature; and also that it is possessed by the animal kingdom.

2. This faculty is either inherited or educed by practice.

3. Those who have it by birth are generally physically diseased or nervously
deranged. The cases where clairvoyance is shown by a perfectly healthy and
well-balanced person are rare.
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4. The records of spiritualism for over forty years in America conclusively
prove that clairvoyance cannot be safely sought after by persons who have no
competent guide; that its pursuit has done harm; and that almost every medium
to whom one puts the question "Am I able to develop clairvoyance?" will reply
"Yes."

5. There are no competent guides in this pursuit to be found here or in Europe
who are willing to teach one how to acquire it without danger.

6. The qualifications such a guide should possess render the finding of one
difficult if not impossible. They are: the power to look within and see
clearly the whole inner nature of the student; a complete knowledge of all the
planes upon which clairvoyance acts, including knowledge of the source, the
meaning, and the effect of all that is perceived by the clairvoyant; and last,
but not least, the power to stop at will the exercise of the power. Evidently
these requirements call for an adept.

Who are the teachers of clairvoyance, and those who advise that it be
practiced? In the main, the first are mediums, and any investigator knows how
little they know. Every one of them differs from every other in his powers. The
majority have only one sort of clairvoyance; here and there are some who
combine, at most, three classes of the faculty. Not a single one is able to
mentally see behind the image or idea perceived, and cannot say in a given case
whether the image seen is the object itself or the result of a thought from
another mind. For in these planes of perception the thoughts of men become as
objective as material objects are to our human eyes. It is true that a
clairvoyant can tell you that what is being thus perceived is not apprehended by
the physical eye, but beyond that he cannot go. Of this I have had hundreds of
examples. In 99 out of 100 instances the seer mistook the thought from another
mind for a clairvoyant perception of a living person or physical object.

The seers of whom I speak see always according to their inner tendency, which is
governed by subtle laws of heredity
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which are wholly unknown to scientific men
and much more to mediums and seers. One will only reach the symbolic plane;
another that which is known to occultists as the positive side of sound; another
to the negative or positive aspects of the epidermis and its emanations; and so
on through innumerable layer after layer of clairvoyance and octave after octave
of vibrations. They all know but the little they have experienced, and for any
other person to seek to develop the power is dangerous. The philosophy of it
all, the laws that cause the image to appear and disappear, are terra
incognita.

The occult septenary scheme in nature with all its modifications produces
multiple effects, and no mere clairvoyant is able to see the truth that
underlies the simplest instance of clairvoyant perception. If a man moves from
one chair to another, immediately hundreds of possibilities arise for the
clairvoyant eye, and he alone who is a highly trained and philosophical seer -
an adept, in short - can combine them all so as to arrive at true
clear-perception. In the simple act described almost all the centres of force in
the moving being go into operation, and each one produces its own peculiar
effect in the astral light. At once the motion made and thoughts aroused elicit
their own sound, color, motion in ether, amount of etheric light, symbolic
picture, disturbance of elemental forces, and so on through the great catalogue.
Did but one wink his eye, the same effects follow in due order. And the seer can
perceive but that which attunes itself to his own development and personal
peculiarities, all limited in force and degree.

What, may I ask, do clairvoyants know of the law of prevention or
encrustation which is acting always with many people? Nothing, absolutely
nothing. How do they explain those cases where, try as they will, they cannot
see anything whatever regarding certain things? Judging from human nature and
the sordidness of many schools of clairvoyance, are we not safe in affirming
that if there were any real or reliable clairvoyance about us now-a-days among
those who offer to teach it or take pay for it, long ago fortunes would
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have
been made by them, banks despoiled, lost articles found, and friends more often
reunited? Admitting that there have been sporadic instances of success on these
lines, does not the exception prove that true clairvoyance is not understood or
likely to be?

But what shall theosophists do? Stop all attempts at clairvoyance. And why?
Because it leads them slowly but surely - almost beyond recall into an interior
and exterior passive state where the will is gradually overpowered and they are
at last in the power of the demons who lurk around the threshold of our
consciousness. Above all, follow no advice to "sit for development." Madness
lies that way. The feathery touches which come upon the skin while trying these
experiments are said by mediums to be the gentle touches of "the spirits." But
they are not. They are caused by the ethereal fluids from within us making their
way out through the skin and thus producing the illusion of a touch. When enough
has gone out, then the victim is getting gradually negative, the future prey for
spooks and will-o'-the-wisp images.

"But what," they say, "shall we pursue and study?" Study the philosophy
of life, leave the decorations that line the road of spiritual development for
future lives, and practice altruism.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
Path, December, 1890

DELUSIONS OF CLAIRVOYANCE

SOME years ago it was proposed that psychometry should be used in detecting
crime and for the exposing of motive in all transactions between man and man.
This, the alleged discoverer said, would alter the state of society by
compelling people to be honest and by reducing crime. Now for those who do not
know, it may be well to say that when you psychometrize you take any object that
has been in the immediate vicinity of any person or place of any action, or the
writing of another, and by holding it to your forehead or in the hand a picture
of the event, the writer, the surroundings, and the history of the object, comes
before your mental eye with more or less accuracy. Time and distance are said to
make no difference, for the wrapping from a mummy has been psychometrized by one
who knew nothing about it, and the mummy with its supposed history accurately
described. Letters also have been similarly treated without reading them, and
not only their contents given but also the unexpressed thoughts and the
surroundings of the writers. Clairvoyants have also on innumerable occasions
given correct descriptions of events and persons they could never have seen or
known. But other innumerable times they have failed.

Without doubt if the city government, or any body of people owning property
that can be stolen, had in their employment a man or woman who could declare
beyond possibility of ever failing where any stolen article was, and who stole
it, and could in advance indicate a purpose on the part of another to steal, to
trick, to lie, or otherwise do evil, one of two things would happen. Either
criminals or intending offenders would abide elsewhere, or some means of getting
rid
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of the clear-seer would be put into effect. Looking at the alluring
possibilities of clairvoyance so far as it is understood, many persons have
sighed for its power for several different reasons. Some would use it for the
purposes described, but many another has thought of it merely as a new means for
furthering personal ends.

Its delusions are so manifold that, although mystical and psychical subjects
have obtained in the public mind a new standing, clairvoyance will not be other
than a curiosity for some time, and when its phenomena and laws are well
understood no reliance greater than now will be placed upon it. And even when
individual clairvoyants of wonderful power are known, they will not be
accessible for such uses, because, having reached their power by special
training, the laws of their school will prohibit the exercise of the faculty at
the bidding of selfish interest, whether on the one side or the other.

If it were not always a matter of doubt and difficulty, natural clear-seers
would have long ago demonstrated the unerring range of their vision by
discovering criminals still uncaught, by pointing out where stolen property
could be recovered, by putting a finger on a moral plague-spot which is known to
exist but cannot be located. Yet this they have not done, and careful
Theosophists are confirmed in the old teaching that the field of clairvoyance is
full of delusions. Coming evil could in the same way be averted, since present
error is the prelude and cause of future painful results.

The prime cause for delusion is that the thought of anything makes around the
thinker an image of the thing thought about. And all images in this
thought-field are alike, since we remember an object by our thought-image of it,
and not by carrying the object in our heads. Hence the picture in our aura of
what we have seen in the hands of another is of the same sort for untrained
seers-as our ideas on the subject of events in which we have not participated.
So a clairvoyant may, and in fact does, mistake these thought-pictures one for
the other, thus reducing the chances of certainty. If an
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anxious mother imagines her child in danger and with vivid bought pictures the
details of a railway accident, the picture the seer may see will be of something
that never happened and is only the product of emotion or imagination.

Mistakes in identity come next. These are more easily made a the astral
plane, which is the means for clairvoyance, than yen upon the visible one, and
will arise from numerous causes. So numerous and complex is this that to fully
explain would not only be hopeless but tedious. For instance, the person, say at
a distance, to whom the clairvoyant eye is directed may look entirely different
from reality, whether as clothing or physiognomy. He may, in the depths of
winter, appear clad in spring clothing, and your clairvoyant report that, adding
probably that it symbolizes something next spring. But, in fact, the spring
clothing was due to his thoughts about well-worn comfortable suit of this sort
throwing a glamour f the clothing before the vision of the seer. Some cases
exactly like this I have known and verified. Or the lover, dwelling on the form
and features of his beloved, or the criminal upon the one he has wronged, will
work a protean change and destroy identification.

Another source of error will be found in the unwitting transfer to the
clairvoyant of your own thoughts, much altered either for better or worse. Or
even the thoughts of some one else whom you have just met or heard from. For if
you consult the seer on some line of thought, having just read the ideas on the
same subject of another who thinks very strongly and very clearly, and whose
character is overmastering, the clairvoyant will ten to one feel the influence
of the other and give you his ideas.

Reversion of image is the last I will refer to. It has been taught always in
the unpopular school of Theosophy that the astral light reverses the images,
just as science knows the image a the retina is not upright. Not only have the
Cabalists said us, but also the Eastern schools, and those who now have studied
these doctrines along Theosophical lines have discovered it to be a fact. So the
untrained clairvoyant may see a
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number or amount backwards, or an object upside
down in whole or in part. The reliance we can place on the observations of
untrained people in ordinary life the scientific schools and courts of law have
long ago discovered; but seekers after the marvellous carelessly accept the
observations of those who must be equally untrained in the field of
clairvoyance. Of course there are many genuine cases of good clear-seeing, but
the mass are not to be relied on. The cultivation of psychic senses is more
difficult than any physical gymnastics, and the number of really trained
clairvoyants in the Western world may be described by a nought written to the
left.
M. MORE
Path, July, 1892

ASTRAL INTOXICATION

THERE is such a thing as being intoxicated in the course of an unwise pursuit
of what we erroneously imagine is spirituality. In the Christian Bible it is
very wisely directed to "prove all" and to hold only to that which is good; this
advice is just as important to the student of occultism who thinks that he has
separated himself from those "inferior" people engaged either in following a
dogma or in tipping tables for messages from deceased relatives - or enemies -
as it is to spiritists who believe in the "summerland" and "returning spirits."

The placid surface of the sea of spirit is the only mirror in which can be
caught undisturbed the reflections of spiritual things. When a student starts
upon the path and begins to see spots of light flash out now and then, or balls
of golden fire roll past him, it does not mean that he is beginning to see the
real Self - pure spirit. A moment of deepest peace or wonderful revealings given
to the student, is not the awful moment when one is about to see his
spiritual guide, much less his own soul. Nor are psychical splashes of blue
flame, nor visions of things that afterwards come to pass, nor sights of small
sections of the astral light with its wonderful photographs of past or future,
nor the sudden ringing of distant fairy-like bells, any proof that you are
cultivating spirituality. These things, and still more curious things, will
occur when you have passed a little distance on the way, but they are only the
mere outposts of a new land which is itself wholly material, and only one remove
from the plane of gross physical consciousness.
p.360
The liability to be carried off and intoxicated by these phenomena is to be
guarded against. We should watch, note and discriminate in all these cases;
place them down for future reference, to be related to some law, or for
comparison with other circumstances of a like sort. The power that Nature has of
deluding us is endless, and if we stop at these matters she will let us go no
further. It is not that any person or power in nature has declared that if we do
so and so we must stop, but when one is carried off by what Boehme calls "God's
wonders," the result is an intoxication that produces confusion of the
intellect. Were one, for instance, to regard every picture seen in the astral
light as a spiritual experience, he might truly after a while brook no
contradiction upon the subject, but that would be merely because he was drunk
with this kind of wine. While he proceeded with his indulgence and neglected his
true progress, which is always dependent upon his purity of motive and conquest
of his known or ascertain-able defects, nature went on accumulating the store of
illusory appearances with which he satiated himself.

It is certain that any student who devotes himself to these astral happenings
will see them increase. But were our whole life devoted to and rewarded by an
enormous succession of phenomena, it is also equally certain that the casting
off of the body would be the end of all that sort of experience, without our
having added really anything to our stock of true knowledge.

The astral plane, which is the same as that of our psychic senses, is as full
of strange sights and sounds as an untrodden South American forest, and has to
be well understood before the student can stay there long without danger. While
we can overcome the dangers of a forest by the use of human inventions, whose
entire object is the physical destruction of the noxious things encountered
there, we have no such aids when treading the astral labyrinth. We may be
physically brave and say that no fear can enter into us, but no untrained or
merely curious seeker is able to say just what effect will result to his outer
senses from the attack or influence encountered
p.361
by the psychical senses.

And the person who revolves selfishly around himself as a center is in
greater danger of delusion than any one else, for he has not the assistance that
comes from being united in thought with all other sincere seekers. One may stand
in a dark house where none of the objects can be distinguished and quite plainly
see all that is illuminated outside; in the same way we can see from out of the
blackness of our own house our hearts - the objects now and then illuminated
outside by the astral light; but we gain nothing. We must first dispel the inner
darkness before trying to see into the darkness without; we must know ourselves
before knowing things extraneous to ourselves.

This is not the road that seems easiest to students. Most of them find it far
pleasanter and, as they think, faster work, to look on all these outside
allurements, and to cultivate all psychic senses, to the exclusion of real
spiritual work.

The true road is plain and easy to find, it is so easy that very many would -
be students miss it because they cannot believe it to be so simple.

"The way lies through the heart";
Ask there and wander not;
Knock loud, nor hesitate
Because at first the sounds
Reverberating, seem to mock thee.
Nor, when the door swings wide,
Revealing shadows black as night,
Must thou recoil.
Within, the Master's messengers
Have waited patiently:
That Master is Thyself!

Path,
October, 1887

A GERMAN MYSTIC'S TEACHINGS

IN the last three numbers of the PATH we have given a story by the German
Mystic Kernning of the experiences of a sensitive. The story is called advisedly
"From Sensitive to Initiate." We did not think that it was intended to show what
the final initiation is, but only one of the many initiations we have to undergo
in our passage through matter. The trials of Caroline illustrate those we all
have, whether we know them as such or not. She had a presence to annoy her; we,
although not sensitive as she was, have within us influences and potential
presences that affect us just as much; they cause us to have bias this way or
that, to be at times clouded in our estimate of what is the true course or the
true view to take, and, like her, so long as we do not recognise the cause of
the clouds, we will be unable to dissipate them. But Kernning was a theosophist,
and one of those men who knew the truth in theory and at the same time were able
to make a practical application of what they knew. There are many cases today in
which sensitive people do just what Caroline did and have "presences" to annoy
them; but how many of our theosophists or spiritualists would be able to cast
the supposed obsesser out, as Mohrland did in the story? They can be counted on
one hand. The simplicity with which Kernning wrote should not blind us to the
value of his work. In the preceding articles by him which we have from time to
time given, there is much to be learned by those who look below the surface. We
therefore add the following as a note to the last story in order to try to show
its theosophic meaning.

The conversation about "Mantrams" between the Sage and the Student in the PATH
for August involves an occult truth
p.363
so important that it is worth while to
recall that the power of mantrams is recognized by the school of German
occultists represented by Kernning. Readers of the PATH who have attentively
read "Some Teachings of a German Mystic" have observed that in nearly all
instances the pupils achieve' an awakening of their inner self, or the
"spiritual rebirth," by means of a particular word, a sentence, or perhaps even
a letter of the alphabet, and that, in cases where persons are involuntarily
awakened, it is by continued thinking upon some object or person, as in the case
of the young sailor whose mind was continually dwelling on his absent sweetheart
and was thereby released from the limitations of his own personality. Caroline Ruppert was aroused by a morbid dwelling on her disappointment in love and by
remorse for her conduct towards her invalid mother, until these thoughts gained
a mantric power over her, and it required intelligent exercise with other
man-trains, given her by the Adept Mohrland, to restore her self-control and
give her a symmetrical development. Out of a medium, or mere sensitive, she thus
became an initiate, able to control the psychic forces by her own will. Every
hapless "medium" who is obsessed by elementals and elementaries that make life a
torment and who is compelled to do the bidding of these forces generated by
personal vitality, and whose conflict obscures the true self-like a spring whose
waters, finding no adequate channel, rise to the level of their source and thus
drown it-, has it in his or her power, by intelligent exercise of the will, to
obtain command over what they are now obliged to obey. But, in doing this,
"right motive" must be kept constantly in view; care must be exercised to keep
absolutely free from all mercenary or other selfish considerations, else one
will become a black magician. The condition known as "mediumship" has been the
subject of too much indiscriminate condemnation; it can be made a blessing as
well as a curse, and the aim should be, not to suppress it, but to develop it in
the right direction. The psychic powers, like all other natural forces, can be
made either a good servant or a terrible master, and, in proportion to their
subtlety as compared with other forces, so much greater is their power
p.364
for good
or for evil.

In psychic work the power of united endeavor has often been emphasized, and it
is easy to see that the power is developed whether consciously or unconsciously
exercised. Thus, with thousands thinking unitedly in one direction, as in the
present Theosophical awakening, they all help each other, lending strength to
each other's will, whether they are aware of it or not. According to this
principle it would seem that a word used commonly for mantric purposes has a
greater potency over the forces of the spirit, owing to the impression it has
made upon the akasa, than a word not commonly used, for in the case of
the former the user has the aid of the wills of all others who have used it.

In one of his works, "The Freemason," Kernning gives a good explanation of the
power of mantrams, in replying to the strictures of a rationalistic critic, who
says that such a use of words is made by the bonzes (yogis) of India, and
therefore must be wholly nonsensical! Says Kernning:

Whoever has a great love for an art or science not only finds delight in
the results, but their very names have a sort of magic power with him. Whoever
feels a love for another person is moved whenever he thinks of that person or
repeats the name of that person. The gambler, in spite of all the arguments
against his infatuation made by others, and often, indeed, by himself, always
beholds dice and cards before his eyes. The drunkard only needs, in order to
be made thirsty, to hear the name of wine. The miser lives in the vision of
his ducats and dollars, the ambitious man upon the insignia of fame and the
plaudits of the multitude, the courtier upon his orders and titles, and in all
these cases, not only are the things themselves concerned, but the names have
become idolized. Now suppose that one should, instead of swimming in the
depths, fill spirit and soul with exalted and divine ideas and names, can
other than most beneficent results follow? Indeed, could a person be a genuine
Christian without the life of Christ, and even his name, becoming animate in
spirit and soul? Therefore there is no nonsensical or unreasonable practice in
this; on the contrary, every one should be made aware of this simple method,
which is founded upon human nature and is confirmed by experience, that he may
attain the means of ennobling his nature, of directing his energies towards
the highest end of his life, and reaching this end with certainty.

Path, October, 1888

OCCULTISM FOR BARTER

ESOTERIC COLLEGES AND FALSE PROPHETS

WHEN Jesus of Nazareth went to the Temple in Jerusalem he, it is said, drove
money changers out of the courts; and later he said that many false prophets
should arise. For the Christian that temple symbolized the Palace of God, and
the occultist knows that the story really means the driving out from the heart
of all materialistic thought. Jesus, with a prophet's eye, saw what has so often
come to pass since then,- false prophets arising on every side, both in and out
of the Church that bears his name.

In the present days no country can boast as ours of having so many false
prophets, who, taking advantage of the popular leaning to mysticism hang out
signs of various kinds, but one and all offering for sale the things of the
spirit.

It is not to magazines or books dealing with these subjects that we refer, for
printing and paper must be paid for when one wants to lay his ideas before the
people. But it is quite a different thing when men or women offer to sell to the
buyer, for money, the knowledge of self or any mystery in nature pertaining to
spiritual things.

In one place we have a man pretending that he is a reincarnation of Jesus
Christ, and in another, one deliberately stating that he is Gautama Buddha come
again in order to correct errors in his promulgated doctrines. Again, we find
astrologers and diviners, mediums and seers, opening shops wherein they dispense
oracles to the willing, gullible people. One is quite as pernicious as the
other, for the taint of money will corrupt anything. And those who have means
are somewhat
p.366
to blame, in that they imagine that their money can procure them knowledge of
the deep, spiritual things of Nature.

The latest thing in this line is that which began in Boston soon after the
starting there of a magazine called the Esoteric. With that journal we
had no concern, for its founders had a right to use it to promulgate just as
much of truth as they had hold of in the same way that the PATH gives out its
ideas of nature and of man. But in the beginning, the managers of that magazine
let it be understood that they were, or one of them -to wit, Mr. Hiram Butler -
was a theosophist; or member of the Theosophical Society. An examination of the
records just made shows that he never was a member of that body.

Not very long ago a bulky book was circulated by this prophet, in which
mysterious statements were made that one Vidya Nyaka desired to found a College
in the U.S. to teach the stockholders (!) and students all the mysteries, and
among others, the power of acquiring vast wealth, and it was said that after the
college was organized unlimited means would be at its disposal, drawn from the
funds at command of adepts; but, as a preliminary merely, the faithful must
disburse. And disburse they did. We grieve to say that many theosophists sent in
money to this scheme which, on its very face, boldly showed that it was founded
as a means of giving its stock-holders wealth.

The first note was sounded in an alleged "Letter to a Seeker" published by the
Esoteric. This was a fraud which took in theosophists who do not get
acquainted with what is written in out-of-the-way places. It was a hit at the
Theosophical Society and at the Adepts, pretending that They were cold and dead
and selfish, and that only the Solar Biologists were fitted to help Americans.
It exhibited ignorance when it left the domain of plagiarism. What it
plagiarized from is a book called "The Wisdom of the Adepts," by Rev. Thomas
Lake Harris, in which he attempted to show that Buddhist Adepts are
systematically trying to subvert Christianity in America, and this "Letter to a
Seeker" took as subtitle, "The Wisdom of the Wise." Fragments are taken, word
for word,
p.367
from pages 8, 9, 319, 249, 371, 248, 249, of Harris's book, and used
to construct this letter in the Esoteric and signed Nemo. If Rev.
Harris did not write it, then it was stolen from him; or, if he did, then the
Esoteric is a secret organ for a Christian sect which is anti-theosophical,
while it outwardly professes theosophy. Either of these alternatives is equally
damaging.

The second note was a loud one on a brass bugle heralding the founding of the
Esoteric College, as the direct outcome of the efforts of the magazine, with Mr.
Butler at the head of it, and Vidya Nyaka in the mysterious distance with a
medley of nonsensical letters at the end of his name. The real name of Vidya N.
is Ohmart, and he is known to many men in Boston who experienced his wiles
before Butler joined hands with him. Before that, Ohmart was satisfied to deal
with men on pure business principles, but when he combined with Butler he played
upon the credulity of the mystically inclined people who sincerely desired to
know the things of the spirit and foolishly thought that the great pretensions
of this pair hid great knowledge and wisdom.

It all speedily ended with a frightful expose in the N. Y. World, Boston
Globe and Herald, and Philadelphia Inquirer. The worst of it
was that the press mixed the Theosophical Society in it, entirely without cause
but wholly because of Butler's theosophic claims, and today hundreds of people
think that exposure was an exposure of humbug on our part. Such are the facts;
hear now of the Karma:

Mr. Butler and all his confederates have to some slight extent injured the
Theosophical Society, and the nemesis provided by the immutable law of Karma
will follow him until the full consequence is felt and compensation made. We do
not need sworn zealots to wreak a vengeance. That will follow, whatever it be,
because behind the Theosophical Society is a mighty power that works by law and
by will, and not by money. No wealth can buy its favor nor avert its care for
its members and for the enemies of the Society. Already material damages and
great annoyance have come to these men who
p.368
dared to sell and buy in the Temple
of God. And the same nemesis, but perhaps with lesser fury, will pursue all
those members of the Theosophical Society who have in their hearts said, "Lo,
here is one who offers at a price that which the Adepts of the Theosophical
Society say can only be obtained through toil and unselfish effort; let us go
buy of him." We are sorry for both, but surely lessons must be learned, and we
had thought that the lesson was taught when the mysterious H. B. of L. invaded
our ranks seeking recruits and getting those who would not try the right way.
The end is not yet, the hour has not struck, but it will arrive. Let us then
rely upon Karma and do our duty.

Path, March, 1889

BOGUS MAHATMA MESSAGES

ON November 30th, 1894, I received, from a source I always respect, this
warning: "Look out for anonymous and bogus 'occult' messages to members of the
Society. Both will be sent, as attempts at delusion, as burlesques, and for
other purposes." On the second of December, at 144 Madison Avenue, New York, a
New York F.T.S. in the presence of Mr. A. Fullerton handed me a packet. A plate
giving the written contents is given below.

The member's name is Joseph W. Ganson, a very earnest student. He said it had
fallen into his lap at his Club, the Harvard, or seemed to fall out of a
newspaper he held. The only other person present was a friend who declared he
had nothing to do with it. The packet is of yellowish linen paper, looking quite
eastern. It was addressed "Ganson," and near the address is "a pledge." Inside
was also a half of a palm-leaf south Indian manuscript with a flower in it.

Mr. Ganson said he did not know whether it was genuine or not, but could not
decide and asked me to tell him. I then said that if a joke he could take the
words to heart, if he chose, for what was good in them, but that in three days I
would decide. On December 5th I gave him a signed certificate that the message
is not genuine and had been concocted by three persons, and that all genuine
objective messages from the Masters carried with them a peculiar and definite
odor which could not be imitated and which once identified would not be
forgotten. The message was shown to a large number of members at a meeting, and
but few were willing to decide for or
p.370
against it, admitting non-ability save by
argument, inference, and appearance. Appearance is no guide, because this
message might have been genuine and still have the same appearance and contents.

Mr. W. E. Coleman of San Francisco is also occupying himself in sending
post-cards to many members in all parts signed "Mahatma E." with three stars,
referring to exposures and scurrilous attacks. Members may as well know these
facts. I invite all to send to me any and all messages, real or pretended, and I
will guarantee to render a decision according to the fact in each case. Beware
not only of bogus messages but also of anonymous communications.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
Path, January, 1895

CLAIMING TO BE JESUS

IN one of the letters written by the Master K.H. and printed by Mr. Sinnett
it is said the world [including doubtless East and West] is still superstitious.
That this is true can hardly be denied, and in America the appearance of many
who claim to be Jesus and who thus gain followers, shows how foolish and
superstitious people yet are.

A man named Teed appeared in New York and is now in some western city, who
said he was Jesus. He had a theory of our living inside a hollow globe. He
induced a wealthy woman to give much money, and still has followers in his
present place.

In Cincinnati a Mrs. Martin declared herself to be the Christ, and immortal.
She gathered believers. But unfortunately in the summer of this year she died.
Her coterie refused to believe in her demise and kept her body until
mortification compelled a burial.

Out in New Mexico, in 1895, a German named Schlatter rises on the scene and
at last says he is the Christ. He is one who takes no money, eats but little,
and it is said he cures many of their diseases. At any rate great excitement
arose about him and hundreds came to be cured. He then went to Denver, a larger
city, and is still there posing as Jesus and claiming that his cures constitute
the proof. And there are others scattered about; those cited are merely
examples.

The posing of these claimants is due to partial insanity and to vanity. They
do not like to pretend to be anything less than
p.372
God. But their having followers
shows how far superstitious and gullable other people are. Theosophists will
doubtless laugh at both. But are we so free from the same defect? Has that folly
exhibited itself or not among us, though perhaps under a different name? What of
that "superstition" which sees in every dark-skinned Hindû either an Adept or a
teacher, or at least a high disciple of some Yogi through whom occult favors may
be had? Why it is known that this nonsense went so far in one case that the
adorer devoted large sums of money to the crafty young fellow who posed as "just
a little less than a Mahâtmâ." We are not quite clear of the beam we have seen
in the eyes of others.

A safe rule will be that those who say they are Jesus or the equivalent of
Christ, are not so, and instead of either following them or looking about for
wonderful beings we will follow the ancient saying: "Man, know thyself."

William Brehon
Path, November, 1895

GIVE US ONE FACT

SINCE last I wrote for THE PATH, the most distinct call I have heard from
many students in The West is found in the cry: "Give us one fact!"

They have acquired the desire to know the truth, but have lingered still
around the market places of earth and the halls of those scientific leaders of
the blind who are the prophets of materialism. They say that some "scientific"
men, while talking of Theosophy, have asked why the Masters have not "given us
one fact on which we may begin and from which a conclusion might be reached";
and they - these students - most earnestly ask for that fact for themselves,
even though they shall conceal it from the very men who have formulated the
question.

Poor children. What are the facts ye desire? Is it some astounding
thaumaturgical exhibitions that shall leave no room for doubt? If so, please say
whether the feat is to be performed in the sight of thousands, or only in the
presence of one postulant and his select circle? If the last, then ye are
self-convicted of a desire to retain unto yourselves what belongeth to many. Or
perhaps ye wish a statement of fact. But that would of course have to be
supported by authority, and we, poor wanderers, have no force of authority in
science or art; statements of facts coming from us would therefore be useless to
you.

And I must tell you in confidence, as the messengers have before this been
directed to do and have not failed therein, that an exhibition of thaumaturgical
skill in the presence of a multitude would subvert the very ends the perfected
men have in view. Suppose that some of those who know were now to
p.374
appear in the
busy hum of American life, where the total sum of objects appears, at this
distance, to be the gain of wealth, and like the two young princes of Buddha's
time were to rise in the air unaided and there emit sheets of fire alternately
from their heads and feet, or were to rise again and float off to a distance in
plain sight of all; would that demonstrate anything to you? Perhaps in the
breasts of some aspiring students might spring up the desire to acquire the
power to do likewise. But pause and tell me what would the many do to whom such
things are myths? I will tell you. Some would admit the possibility of a genuine
phenomenon, seeking ways and means to do it too, so that they might exhibit it
for an admission price. Others, and including your scientific fact-seekers,
would begin by denying its truth, by ascribing it to delusion, and by charging
those who did it, no matter how really spiritual those were, with deliberate
fraud and imposture, while a certain section would deny the very happening of
the matter and falsify the eye-knowledge of hundreds. 11We can agree with the writer, as we have seen just as wonderful
things done by H.P. Blavatsky and next day heard accusations of fraud against
her and charges of credulity against those who had seen. - [ED.]
Still others would say "It is a God"! - "It is a devil," with consequences to
correspond. No, friends, the true teachers do not begin by laying the
foundations for greater error and more fast-bound superstition than those we are
trying to destroy.

Then I must tell you in all seriousness and truth that statements of the
facts you really wish have been over and over again made in many places, books,
and times. Not alone are they to be found in you new theosophical literature,
but in that of older times. In every year for centuries past these facts have
been given out, - even in English. They were told in the days of the German and
English Alchemists, and by the Cabalists. But greed and wrong motive have ever
formed the self-constructed barriers and obscurers.

The Alchemists of the pure school spoke of the gold they could make by means
of their powders, and the salt, together with their mercury; and the Cabalists
said that by pronouncing Jehovah's name not only was the gold formed, but power
ob-
p.375
tained in all worlds. Very true statements. Are they not statements of fact?
Did they satisfy the mass of seekers? So far from that, the result was to lead
them into error. Many patiently sought for the powder and the proper combination
of the salt or sulphur and mercury, so that they might make worthless gold
metal, which today is exchangeable and tomorrow is useless, and which never
could give peace of mind or open the door of the future. Then others went by
themselves and tried various modulations of sound in pronouncing the supposed
name of their Mighty God, until they today have some two-score sorts. What
purblind ignorance this, for God is God and has not changed with the rise and
fall of empires or the disappearance of languages; his name was once a different
sound in ancient Egypt or India, in Lemuria, Atlantis or Copan. Where, then, are
those many sounds of His Holy Name, or has that been altered?

"But where," ye say, "is the fact in the pronunciation of the name of
God?" The answer is by asking "What and who is God?" He is the All; the earth,
the sky, the stars in it; the heart of man; the elemental and organic world; the
kingdoms of the universe; the realm of sound and the formless void. It not the
pronunciation of that Name to consist therefore in Becoming all those
kingdoms, and realms, and power, focussing in yourself the entire essence of
them, each and all at once? Is this to be done by breathing forth
"Jehovah" in one or many forms? You easily see it is not. And your minds will
carry you on the next step to admit that before you can do this you must have
passed through every one of those kingdoms, retaining perfect knowledge and
memory of each, commander of each, before you can attempt the pronunciation of
the whole. Is this a small task? Is it not the task Karma has set before you,
compelling you like children to repeat parts of the word in the varied
experiences of repeated lives spent on earth, bringing you back to the lesson
until it is well learned?

And so we are brought to ourselves. Our Aryan ancestors have made the
declaration, repeated by thousands since, that each man is himself a little
universe. Through him pass all
p.376
the threads of energy that ramify to all
the worlds, and where any one of those lines crosses him is the door to the
kingdom to which that thread belongs. Listen to the Chandogya Upanishad:

There is this city of Brahman - the body - and in it the palace, the small
lotus of the heart, and in it that small ether. Both heaven and earth are
contained within it, both fire and air, both sun and moon, both lightning and
stars; and whatever there is of the Self here in the world, and whatever has
been or will be, all that is contained within it.

Vain it is to make search without. No knowledge will reach you from anywhere
but this small lotus of the heart. Just now ye are binding it so that it cannot
burst open. It is with the delusions of the mind ye bind it in a knot. That knot
ye must break. Break loose from scholastic error, make of your minds a still and
placid surface on which the Lord of the palace in the heart can reflect pictures
of Truth, become as little children who are not hindered by preconceptions, and
ye will have knowledge.

The only fact I have to offer you is -
YOURSELVES.
Nilakant
Path, March, 1888

THE KALI YUGA - THE PRESENT AGE

STUDENT. - I am very much puzzled about the present
age. Some theosophists seem to abhor it as if wishing to be taken away from it
altogether, inveighing against modern inventions such as the telegraph,
railways, machinery, and the like, and bewailing the disappearance of former
civilizations. Others take a different view, insisting that this is a better
time than any other, and hailing modern methods as the best. Tell me, please,
which of these is right, or, if both are wrong, what ought we to know about the
age we live in.

Sage. - The teachers of Truth know all about this age. But they do not
mistake the present century for the whole cycle. The older times of European
history, for example, when might was right and when darkness prevailed over
Western nations, was as much a part of this age, from the standpoint of the
Masters, as is the present hour, for the Yuga - to use a sanscrit word - in
which we are now had begun many thousands of years before. And during that
period of European darkness, although this Yuga had already begun, there was
much light, learning, and civilization in India and China. The meaning of the
words "present age" must therefore be extended over a far greater period than is
at present assigned. In fact, modern science has reached no definite conclusion
yet as to what should properly be called "an age," and the truth of the Eastern
doctrine is denied. Hence we find writers speaking of the "Golden Age," the
"Iron Age," and so on, whereas they are only parts of the real age that began so
far back that modern archaeologists deny it altogether.

Student. - What is the sanscrit name for this age, and what is its
meaning?p.378
Sage. - The sanscrit is "Kali," which added to Yuga gives us
"Kali-Yuga." The meaning of it is "Dark Age." Its approach was known to the
ancients, its characteristics are described in the Indian poem "The Mahabharata."
As I said that it takes in an immense period of the glorious part of Indian
history, there is no chance for anyone to be jealous and to say that we are
comparing the present hour with that wonderful division of Indian development.

Student. - What are the characteristics to which you refer, by which
Kali-Yuga may be known?

Sage. - As its name implies, darkness is the chief. This of course is
not deducible by comparing today with 800 A.D., for this would be no comparison
at all. The present century is certainly ahead of the middle ages, but as
compared with the preceding Yuga it is dark. To the Occultist, material
advancement is not of the quality of light, and he finds no proof of progress in
merely mechanical contrivances that give comfort to a few of the human family
while the many are in misery. For the darkness he would have to point but to one
nation, even the great American Republic. Here he sees a mere extension of the
habits and life of the Europe from which it sprang; here a great experiment with
entirely new conditions and material was tried; here for many years very little
poverty was known; but here today there is as much grinding poverty as anywhere,
and as large a criminal class with corresponding prisons as in Europe, and more
than in India. Again, the great thirst for riches and material betterment, while
spiritual life is to a great extent ignored, is regarded by us as darkness. The
great conflict already begun between the wealthy classes and the poorer is a
sign of darkness. Were spiritual light prevalent, the rich and the poor would
still be with us, for Karma cannot be blotted out, but the poor would know how
to accept their lot and the rich how to improve the poor; now, on the contrary,
the rich wonder why the poor do not go to the poorhouse, meanwhile seeking in
the laws for cures for strikes and socialism, and the poor continually growl at
fate and their supposed oppressors. All this is of the quality of
p.379
spiritual
darkness.

Student. - Is it wise to inquire as to the periods when the cycle
changes, and to speculate on the great astronomical or other changes that herald
a turn.

Sage. - It is not. There is an old saying that the gods are jealous
about these things, not wishing mortals to know them. We may analyze the age,
but it is better not to attempt to fix the hour of a change of cycle. Besides
that, you will be unable to settle it, because a cycle does not begin on a day
or year clear of any other cycle; they interblend, so that, although the wheel
of one period is still turning, the initial point of another has already
arrived.

Student. - Are these some of the reasons why Mr. Sinnett was not given
certain definite periods of years about which he asked?

Sage. - Yes.

Student. - Has the age in which one lives any effect on the student;
and what is it?

Sage. - It has effect on every one, but the student after passing
along in his development feels the effect more than the ordinary man. Were it
otherwise, the sincere and aspiring students all over the world would advance at
once to those heights towards which they strive. It takes a very strong soul to
hold back the age's heavy hand, and it is all the more difficult because that
influence, being a part of the student's larger life, is not so well understood
by him. It operates in the same way as a structural defect in a vessel. All the
inner as well as the outer fibre of the man is the result of the long centuries
of earthly lives lived here by his ancestors. These sow seeds of thought and
physical tendencies in a way that you cannot comprehend. All those tendencies
affect him. Many powers once possessed are hidden so deep as to be unseen, and
he struggles against obstacles constructed ages ago. Further yet are the
peculiar alterations brought about in the astral world. It, being at once a
photographic plate, so to say, and also a
p.380
reflector, has become the keeper of
the mistakes of ages past which it continually reflects upon us from a plane to
which most of us are strangers. In that sense therefore, free as we suppose
ourselves, we are walking about completely hypnotized by the past, acting
blindly under the suggestions thus cast upon us.

Student. - Was that why Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do"?

Sage. - That was one meaning. In one aspect they acted blindly,
impelled by the age, thinking they were right.

Regarding these astral alterations, you will remember how in the time of
Julian the seers reported that they could see the gods, but they were decaying,
some headless, others flaccid, others minus limbs, and all appearing weak. The
reverence for these ideals was departing, and their astral pictures had already
begun to fade.

Student. - What mitigation is there about this age? Is there nothing
at all to relieve the picture?

Sage. - There is one thing peculiar to the present Kali-Yuga
that may be used by the Student. All causes now bring about their effects much
more rapidly than in any other or better age. A sincere lover of the race can
accomplish more in three incarnations under Kali-Yuga's reign than he
could in a much greater number in any other age. Thus by bearing all the
manifold troubles of this Age and steadily triumphing, the object of his efforts
will be more quickly realized, for, while the obstacles seem great, the powers
to be invoked can be reached more quickly.

Student. - Even if this is, spiritually considered, a Dark Age, is it
not in part redeemed by the increasing triumphs of mind over matter, and by the
effects of science in mitigating human ills, such as the causes of disease,
disease itself, cruelty, intolerance, bad laws, etc.?

Sage. - Yes, these are mitigations of the darkness in just the same
way that a lamp gives some light at night but does
p.381
not restore daylight. In this
age there are great triumphs of science, but they are nearly all directed to
effects and do not take away the causes of the evils. Great strides
have been made in the arts and in cure of diseases, but in the future, as the
flower of our civilization unfolds, new diseases will arise and more strange
disorders will be known, springing from causes that lie deep in the minds of men
and which can only be eradicated by spiritual living.

Student. - Admitting all you say, are not we, as Theosophists, to
welcome every discovery of truth in any field, especially such truth as lessens
suffering or enlarges the moral sense?

Sage. - This is our duty. All truths discovered must be parts of the
one Absolute Truth, and so much added to the sum of our outer knowledge. There
will always be a large number of men who seek for these parts of truth, and
others who try to alleviate present human misery. They each do a great and
appointed work that no true Theosophist should ignore. And it is also the duty
of the latter to make similar efforts when possible, for Theosophy is a dead
thing if it is not turned into the life. At the same time, no one of us may be
the judge of just how much or how little our brother is doing in that direction.
If he does all that he can and knows how to do, he does his whole present duty.

Student. - I fear that a hostile attitude by Occult teachers towards
the learning and philanthropy of the time may arouse prejudice against Theosophy
and Occultism, and needlessly impede the spread of Truth. May it not be so?

Sage. - The real Occult Teachers have no hostile attitude toward these
things. If some persons, who like theosophy and try to spread it, take such a
position, they do not thereby alter the one assumed by the real Teachers who
work with all classes of men and use every possible instrument for good. But at
the same time we have found that an excess of the technical and special
knowledge of the day very often acts to prevent men from apprehending the truth.p.382
Student. - Are there any causes, other than the spread of Theosophy,
which may operate to reverse the present drift towards materialism?

Sage. - The spread of the knowledge of the laws of Karma and
Reincarnation and of a belief in the absolute spiritual unity of all beings will
alone prevent this drift. The cycle must, however, run its course, and until
that is ended all beneficial causes will of necessity act slowly and not to the
extent they would in a brighter age. As each student lives a better life
and by his example imprints upon the astral light the picture of a higher
aspiration acted in the world, he thus aids souls of advanced development to
descend from other spheres where the cycles are so dark that they can no
longer stay there.

Student. - Accept my thanks for your instruction.

Sage. - May you reach the terrace of enlightenment.

Path, April, 1888

ELEMENTALS AND ELEMENTARIES

Student. - If I understand you, an elemental is a centre of force,
without intelligence, without moral character or tendencies, but capable of
being directed in its movements by human thoughts, which may, consciously or
not, give it any form, and to a certain extent intelligence; in its simplest
form it is visible as a disturbance in a transparent medium, such as would be
produced by a "glass fish, so transparent as to be invisible, swimming through
the air of the room," and leaving behind him a shimmer, such as hot air makes
when rising from a stove. Also, elementals, attracted and vitalized by certain
thoughts, may effect a lodgment in the human system (of which they then share
the government with the ego), and are very hard to get out.

Sage. - Correct, in general, except as to their "effecting a
lodgment." Some classes of elementals, however, have an intelligence of their
own and a character, but they are far beyond our comprehension and ought perhaps
to have some other name.
That class which has most to do with us answers the above description. They
are centres of force or energy which are acted on by us while thinking and in
other bodily motions. We also act on them and give them form by a species of
thought which we have no register of. As, one person might shape an elemental so
as to seem like an insect, and not be able to tell whether he had thought of
such a thing or not. For there is a vast unknown country in each human being
which he does not himself understand until he has tried, and
p.384
then only after
many initiations.
That "elementals . . . may effect a lodgment in the human system, of which
they then share the government, and are very hard to get out" is, as a whole,
incorrect. It is only in certain cases that any one or more elementals are
attracted to and "find lodgment in the human system." In such cases special
rules apply. We are not considering such cases. The elemental world
interpenetrates this, and is therefore eternally present in the human system.
As it (the elemental world) is automatic and like a photographic plate, all
atoms continually arriving at and departing from the "human system" are
constantly assuming the impression conveyed by the acts and thoughts of that
person, and therefore, if he sets up a strong current of thought, he attracts
elementals in greater numbers, and they all take on one prevailing tendency or
color, so that all new arrivals find a homogeneous color or image which they
instantly assume. On the other hand, a man who has many diversities of thought
and meditation is not homogeneous, but, so to say, particolored, and so the
elementals may lodge in that part which is different from the rest and go away
in like condition. In the first case it is one mass of elementals similarly
vibrating or electrified and colored, and in that sense may be called one
elemental, in just the same way that we know one man as Jones, although for
years he has been giving off and taking on new atoms of gross matter.

Student. - If they are attracted and repelled by thoughts, do they
move with the velocity of thought, say from here to the planet Neptune?

Sage. - They move with the velocity of thought. In their world there
is no space or time as we understand those terms. If Neptune be within the
astral sphere of this world, then they go there with that velocity, otherwise
not; but that "if" need not be solved now.

Student. - What determines their movements besides thought, - e.g.,
when they are floating about the room?p.385
Sage. - Those other classes of thoughts above referred to; certain
exhalations of beings; different rates and ratios of vibration among beings;
different changes of magnetism caused by present causes or by the moon and the
year; different polarities; changes of sound; changes of influences from other
minds at a distance.

Student. - When so floating, can they be seen by any one, or only by
those persons who are clairvoyant?

Sage. - Clairvoyance is a poor word. They can be seen by partly
clairvoyant people. By all those who can see thus; by more people, perhaps, than
are aware of the fact.

Student. - Can they be photographed, as the rising air from the hot
stove can?

Sage. - Not to my knowledge yet. It is not impossible, however.

Student. - Are they the lights, seen floating about a dark séance room
by clairvoyant people?

Sage. - In the majority of cases those lights are produced by them.

Student. - Exactly what is their relation to light, that makes it
necessary to hold séances in the dark?

Sage. - It is not their relation to light that makes darkness
necessary, but the fact that light causes constant agitation and alteration in
the magnetism of the room. All these things can be done just as well in the
light of day.
If I should be able to make clear to you "exactly what is their relation to
light," then you would know what has long been kept secret, the key to the
elemental world. This is kept guarded because it is a dangerous secret. No
matter how virtuous you are, you could not - once you knew the secret - prevent
the knowledge getting out into the minds of others who would not hesitate to use
it for bad purposes.

Student. - I have noticed that attention often interferes
p.386
with certain
phenomena; thus a pencil will not write when watched, but writes at once when
covered; or a mental question cannot be answered till the mind has left it and
gone to something else. Why is this?

Sage. - This kind of attention creates confusion. In these things we
use desire, will, and knowledge. The desire is present, but knowledge is absent.
When the desire is well formed and attention withdrawn, the thing is often done;
but when our attention is continued we only interrupt, because we possess only
half attention. In order to use attention, it must be of that sort which can
hold itself to the point of a needle for an indefinite period of time.

Student. - I have been told that but few people can go to a séance
without danger to themselves, either of some spiritual or astral contamination,
or of having their vitality depleted for the benefit of the spooks, who suck the
vital force out of the circle through the medium, as if the former were a glass
of lemonade and the latter a straw. How is this?

Sage. - Quite generally this happens. It is called Bhut worship by the
Hindus.

Student. - Why are visitors at a séance often extremely and
unaccountably tired next day?

Sage. - Among other reasons, because mediums absorb the vitality for
the use of the "spooks," and often vile vampire elementaries are present.

Student. - What are some of the dangers at séances?

Sage. - The scenes visible - in the Astral - at séances are horrible,
inasmuch as these "spirits" - bhuts - precipitate themselves upon sitters and
mediums alike; and as there is no séance without having present some or many bad
elementaries - half dead human beings, - there is much vampirizing going on.
These things fall upon the people like a cloud or a big octopus, and disappear
within them as if sucked in by a
p.387
sponge. That is one reason why it is not well
to attend them in general.

Elementaries are not all bad, but, in a general sense, they are not good.
They are shells, no doubt of that. Well, they have much automatic and seemingly
intelligent action left if they are those of strongly material people who died
attached to the things of life. If of people of an opposite character, they are
not so strong. Then there is a class which are really not dead, such as
suicides, and sudden deaths, and highly wicked people. They are powerful.
Elementals enter into all of them, and thus get a fictitious personality and
intelligence wholly the property of the shell. They galvanize the shell into
action, and by its means can see and hear as if beings themselves, like us. The
shells are, in this case, just like a sleepwalking human body. They will through
habit exhibit the advancement they got while in the flesh. Some people, you
know, do not impart to their bodily molecules the habit of their minds to as
great extent as others. We thus see why the utterances of these so-called
"spirits" are never ahead of the highest point of progress attained by living
human beings, and why they take up the ideas elaborated day-by-day by their
votaries. This séance worship is what was called in Old India the worship of the
Pretas and Bhuts and Pisachas and Gandharvas.

I do not think any elementary capable of motive had ever any other than a bad
one; the rest are nothing, they have no motive and are only the shades refused
passage by Charon.

Student. - What is the relation between sexual force and phenomena?

Sage. - It is at the bottom. This force is vital, creative, and a sort
of reservoir. It may be lost by mental action as well as by physical. In fact
its finer part is dissipated by mental imaginings, while physical acts only draw
off the gross part, that which is the "carrier" (upadhi) for the finer.

Student. - Why do so many mediums cheat, even when
p.388
they can produce
real phenomena?

Sage. - It is the effect of the use of that which in itself is
sublimated cheating, which, acting on an irresponsible mind, causes the lower
form of cheat, of which the higher is any illusionary form whatever. Besides, a
medium is of necessity unbalanced somewhere.

They deal with these forces for pay, and that is enough to call to them all
the wickedness of time. They use the really gross sorts of matter, which causes
inflammation in corresponding portions of the moral character, and hence
divagations from the path of honesty. It is a great temptation. You do not know,
either, what fierceness there is in those who "have paid" for a sitting and wish
"for the worth of their money."

Student. - When a clairvoyant, as a man did here a year ago, tells me
that "he sees a strong band of spirits about me," and among them an old man who
says he is a certain eminent character, what does he really see? Empty and
senseless shells? If so, what brought them there? Or elementals which have got
their form from my mind or his?

Sage. - Shells, I think, and thoughts, and old astral pictures. If for
instance, you once saw that eminent person and conceived great respect or fear
for him, so that his image was graven in your astral sphere in deeper lines than
other images, it would be seen for your whole life by seers, who, if untrained -
as they all are here - could not tell whether it was an image or reality; and
then each sight of it is a revivification of the image.

Besides, not all would see the same thing. Fall down, for instance, and hurt
your body, and that will bring up all similar events and old forgotten things
before any seer's eye.

The whole astral world is a mass of illusion; people see into it, and then,
through the novelty of the thing and the exclusiveness of the power, they are
bewildered into thinking
p.389
they actually see true things, whereas they have only
removed one thin crust of dirt.

Student. - Accept my thanks for your instruction.

Sage. - May you reach the terrace of enlightenment.

Path, May, 1888

ELEMENTALS - KARMA

STUDENT. - Permit me to ask you again, Are elementals beings?

Sage. - It is not easy to convey to you an idea of the constitution of
elementals; strictly speaking, they are not, because the word elementals
has been used in reference to a class of them that have no being such as mortals
have. It would be better to adopt the terms used in Indian books, such as
Gandharvas, Bhuts, Pisachas, Devas, and so on. Many things well known about them
cannot be put into ordinary language.

Student. - Do you refer to their being able to act in the fourth
dimension of space?

Sage. - Yes, in a measure. Take the tying in an endless cord of many
knots - a thing often done at spiritist séances. That is possible to him who
knows more dimensions of space than three. No three-dimensional being can do
this; and as you understand "matter," it is impossible for you to conceive how
such a knot can be tied or how a solid ring can be passed through the matter of
another solid one. These things can be done by elementals.

Student. - Are they not all of one class?

Sage. - No. There are different classes for each plane, and division
of plane, of nature. Many can never be recognized by men. And those pertaining
to one plane do not act in another. You must remember, too, that these "planes"
of which
p.391
we are speaking interpenetrate each other.

Student. - Am I to understand that a clairvoyant or clairaudient has
to do with or is affected by a certain special class or classes of elementals?

Sage. - Yes. A clairvoyant can only see the sights properly belonging
to the planes his development reaches to or has opened. And the elementals in
those planes show to the clairvoyant only such pictures as belong to their
plane. Other parts of the idea or thing pictured may be retained in planes not
yet open to the seer. For this reason few clairvoyants know the whole truth.

Student. - Is there not some connection between the Karma of man and
elementals?

Sage. - A very important one. The elemental world has become a strong
factor in the Karma of the human race. Being unconscious, automatic, and
photographic, it assumes the complexion of the human family itself. In the
earlier ages, when we may postulate that man had not yet begun to make bad
Karma, the elemental world was more friendly to man because it had not received
unfriendly impressions. But so soon as man began to become ignorant, unfriendly
to himself and the rest of creation, the elemental world began to take on
exactly the same complexion and return to humanity the exact pay, so to speak,
due for the actions of humanity. Or, like a donkey, which, when he is pushed
against, will push against you. Or, as a human being, when anger or insult is
offered, feels inclined to return the same. So the elemental world, being
unconscious force, returns or reacts upon humanity exactly as humanity acted
towards it, whether the actions of men were done with the knowledge of these
laws or not. So in these times it has come to be that the elemental world has
the complexion and action which is the exact result of all the actions and
thoughts and desires of men from the earliest times. And, being unconscious and
only acting according to the natural laws of its being, the elemental world is a
p.392
powerful factor in the workings of Karma. And so long as mankind does not
cultivate brotherly feeling and charity towards the whole of creation, just so
long will the elementals be without the impulse to act for our benefit. But so
soon and wherever man or men begin to cultivate brotherly feeling and love for
the whole of creation, there and then the elementals begin to take on the new
condition.

Student. - How then about the doing of phenomena by adepts?

Sage. - The production of phenomena is not possible without either the
aid or disturbance of elementals. Each phenomenon entails the expenditure of
great force, and also brings on a correspondingly great disturbance in the
elemental world, which disturbance is beyond the limit natural to ordinary human
life. It then follows that, as soon as the phenomenon is completed, the
disturbance occasioned begins to be compensated for. The elementals are in
greatly excited motion, and precipitate themselves in various directions. They
are not able to affect those who are protected. But they are able, or rather it
is possible for them, to enter into the sphere of unprotected persons, and
especially those persons who are engaged in the study of occultism. And then
they become agents in concentrating the karma of those persons, producing
troubles and disasters often, or other difficulties which otherwise might have
been so spread over a period of time as to be not counted more than the ordinary
vicissitudes of life. This will go to explain the meaning of the statement that
an Adept will not do a phenomenon unless he sees the desire in the mind of
another lower or higher Adept or student; for then there is a sympathetic
relation established, and also a tacit acceptance of the consequences which may
ensue. It will also help to understand the peculiar reluctance often of some
persons, who can perform phenomena, to produce them in cases where we may think
their production would be beneficial; and also why they are never done in order
to compass
p.393
worldly ends, as is natural for worldly people to suppose might be
done, - such as procuring money, transferring objects, influencing minds, and so
on.

Student. - Accept my thanks for you instruction.

Sage. - May you reach the terrace of enlightenment!

Path, June, 1888

ELEMENTALS - HOW THEY ACT

Student. - Is there any reason why you do not give me a more detailed
explanation of the constitution of elementals and the modes by which they work?

Sage. - Yes. There are many reasons. Among others is your inability,
shared by most of the people of the present day, to comprehend a description of
things that pertain to a world with which you are not familiar and for which you
do not yet possess terms of expression. Were I to put forth these descriptions,
the greater part would seem vague and incomprehensible on one hand, while on the
other many of them would mislead you because of the interpretation put on them
by yourself. Another reason is that, if the constitution, field of action, and
method of action of elementals were given out, there are some minds of a very
inquiring and peculiar bent who soon could find out how to come into
communication with these extraordinary beings, with results disadvantageous to
the community as well as the individuals.

Student. - Why so? Is it not well to increase the sum of human
knowledge, even respecting most recondite parts of nature; or can it be that the
elementals are bad?

Sage. - It is wise to increase the knowledge of nature's laws, but
always with proper limitations. All things will become known some day. Nothing
can be kept back when men have reached the point where they can understand. But
at this time it would not be wise to give them, for the asking, certain
knowledge that would not be good for them. That knowledge
p.395
relates to elementals,
and it can for the present be kept back from the scientists of today. So long as
it can be retained from them, it will be, until they and their followers are of
a different stamp.

As to the moral character of elementals, they have none; they are colorless
in themselves - except some classes - and merely assume the tint, so to speak,
of the person using them.

Student. - Will our scientific men one day, then, be able to use these
beings, and, if so, what will be the manner of it? Will their use be confined to
only the good men of the earth?

Sage. - The hour is approaching when all this will be done. But the
scientists of today are not the men to get this knowledge. They are only pigmy
forerunners who sow seed and delve blindly in no thoroughfares. They are too
small to be able to grasp these mighty powers, but they are not wise enough to
see that their methods will eventually lead to Black Magic in centuries to come
when they shall be forgotten.

When elemental forces are used similarly as we now see electricity and other
natural energies adapted to various purposes, there will be "war in heaven."
Good men will not alone possess the ability to use them. Indeed, the sort of man
you now call "good" will not be the most able. The wicked will, however, pay
liberally for the power of those who can wield such forces, and at last the
Supreme Masters, who now guard this knowledge from children, will have to come
forth. Then will ensue a dreadful war, in which, as has ever happened, the
Masters will succeed and the evil doers be destroyed by the very engines,
principalities, and powers prostituted to their own purposes during years of
intense selfish living. But why dilate on this; in these days it is only a
prophecy.

Student. - Could you give me some hints as to how the secrets of the
elemental plane are preserved and prevented from being known? Do these guardians
of whom you speak occupy themselves in checking elementals, or how? Do they see
much danger of divulgement likely in those instances where elemental action is
patent to the observer?p.396
Sage. - As to whether they check elementals or not need not be
enquired into, because, while that may be probable, it does not appear very
necessary where men are unsuspicious of the agency causing that phenomena. It is
much easier to throw a cloud over the investigator's mind and lead him off to
other results of often material advantage to himself and men, while at the same
time acting as a complete preventive or switch which turns his energies and
application into different departments.

It might be illustrated thus: Suppose that a number of trained occultists are
set apart to watch the various sections of the world where the mental energies
are in fervid operation. It is quite easy for them to see in a moment any mind
that is about reaching a clue into the elemental world; and, besides, imagine
that trained elementals themselves constantly carry information of such events.
Then, by superior knowledge and command over this peculiar world, influences
presenting various pictures are sent out to that enquiring mind. In one case it
may be a new moral reform, in another a great invention is revealed, and such is
the effect that the man's whole time and mind are taken up by this new thing
which he fondly imagines is his own. Or, again, it would be easy to turn his
thoughts into a certain rut leading far from the dangerous clue. In fact, the
methods are endless.

Student. - Would it be wise to put into the hands of truly good,
conscientious men who now use aright what gifts they have, knowledge of and
control over elementals, to be used on the side of right?

Sage. - The Masters are the judges of what good men are to have this
power and control. You must not forget that you cannot be sure of the character
at bottom of those whom you call "truly good and conscientious men." Place them
in the fire of the tremendous temptation which such power and control would
furnish, and most of them would fail. But the Masters already know the
characters of all who in any way approach to a knowledge of these forces, and
They always
p.397
judge whether such a man is to be aided or prevented. They are not
working to make these laws and forces known, but to establish right doctrine,
speech, and action, so that the characters and motives of men shall undergo such
radical changes as to fit them for wielding power in the elemental world. And
that power is not now lying idle, as you infer, but is being always used by
those who will never fail to rightly use it.

Student. - Is there any illustration at hand showing what the people
of the present day would do with these extraordinary energies?

Sage. - A cursory glance at men in these western worlds engaged in the
mad rush after money, many of them willing to do anything to get it, and at the
strain, almost to warfare, existing between laborers and users of labor, must
show you that, were either class in possession of power over the elemental
world, they would direct it to the furtherance of the aims now before them. Then
look at Spiritualism. It is recorded in the Lodge - photographed, you may say,
by the doers of the acts themselves - that an enormous number of persons daily
seek the aid of mediums and their "spooks" merely on questions of business.
Whether to buy stocks, or engage in mining for gold and silver, to deal in
lotteries, or to make new mercantile contracts. Here on one side is a picture of
a coterie of men who obtained at a low figure some mining property on the advice
of elemental spirits with fictitious names masquerading behind mediums; these
mines were then to be put upon the public at a high profit, inasmuch as the
"spirits" promised metal. Unhappily for the investors, it failed. But such a
record is repeated in many cases.

Then here is another where in a great American city - the karma being
favorable - a certain man speculated in stocks upon similar advice, succeeded,
and, after giving the medium liberal pay, retired to what is called enjoyment of
life. Neither party devoted either himself or the money to the benefiting of
humanity.
p.398
There is no question of honor involved, nor any as to whether money ought or
ought not to be made. It is solely one as to the propriety, expediency, and
results of giving suddenly into the hands of a community unprepared and without
an altruistic aim, such abnormal power. Take hidden treasure, for instance.
There is much of it in hidden places, and many men wish to get it. For what
purpose? For the sake of ministering to their luxurious wants and leaving it to
their equally unworthy descendants. Could they know the mantram controlling the
elementals that guard such treasure, they would use it at once, motive or no
motive, the sole object being the money in the case.

Student. - Do some sorts of elementals have guard over hidden
treasure?

Sage. - Yes, in every instance, whether never found or soon
discovered. The causes for the hiding and the thoughts of the hider or loser
have much to do with the permanent concealment or subsequent finding.

Student. - What happens when a large sum of money, say, such as
Captain Kidd's mythical treasure, is concealed, or when a quantity of coin is
lost?

Sage. - Elementals gather about it. They have many and curious modes
of causing further concealment. They even influence animals to that end. This
class of elementals seldom, if ever, report at your spiritualistic séances. As
time goes on the forces of air and water still further aid them, and sometimes
they are able even to prevent the hider from recovering it. Thus in course of
years, even when they may have altogether lost their hold on it, the whole thing
becomes shrouded in mist, and it is impossible to find anything.

Student. - This in part explains why so many failures are recorded in
the search for hidden treasure. But how about the Masters; are they prevented
thus by these weird guardians?

Sage. - They are not. The vast quantities of gold hidden in
p.399
the earth
and under the sea are at their disposal always. They can, when necessary for
their purposes, obtain such sums of money on whom no living being or descendants
of any have the slightest claim, as would appall the senses of your greatest
money getter. They have but to command the very elementals controlling it, and
They have it. This is the basis for the story of Aladdin's wonderful lamp, more
true than you believe.

Student. - Of what use then is it to try, like the alchemists, to make
gold? With the immense amount of buried treasure thus easily found when you
control its guardian, it would seem a waste of time and money to learn
transmutation of metals.

Sage. - The transmutation spoken of by the real alchemists was the
alteration of the base alloy in man's nature. At the same time, actual
transmutation of lead into gold is possible. And many followers of the
alchemists, as well as of the pure-souled Jacob Boehme, eagerly sought to
accomplish the material transmuting, being led away by the glitter of wealth.
But an Adept has no need for transmutation, as I have shown you. The stories
told of various men who are said to have produced gold from base metals for
different kings in Europe are wrong explanations. Here and there Adepts have
appeared, assuming different names, and in certain emergencies they supplied or
used large sums of money. But instead of its being the product of alchemical
art, it was simply ancient treasure brought to them by elementals in their
service and that of the Lodge. Raymond Lully or Robert Flood might have been of
that sort, but I forbear to say, since I cannot claim acquaintance with those
men.

Student. - I thank you for your instruction.

Sage. - May you reach the terrace of enlightenment!

Path, July, 1888

MANTRAMS

STUDENT. - You spoke of mantrams by which we could
control elementals on guard over hidden treasure. What is a mantram?

Sage. - A mantram is a collection of words which, when sounded in
speech, induce certain vibrations not only in the air, but also in the finer
ether, thereby producing certain effects.

Student. - Are the words taken at haphazard?

Sage. - Only by those who, knowing nothing of mantrams, yet use them.

Student. - May they, then, be used according to rule and also
irregularly? Can it be possible that people who know absolutely nothing of their
existence or field of operations should at the same time make use of them? Or is
it something like digestion, of which so many people know nothing whatever,
while they in fact are dependent upon its proper use for their existence? I
crave your indulgence because I know nothing of the subject.

Sage. - The "common people" in almost every country make use of them
continually, but even in that case the principle at the bottom is the same as in
the other. In a new country where folk-lore has not yet had time to spring up,
the people do not have as many as in such a land as India or in long settled
parts of Europe. The aborigines, however, in any country will be possessed of
them.p.401
Student. - You do not now infer that they are used by Europeans for
the controlling of elementals.

Sage. - No. I refer to their effect in ordinary intercourse between
human beings. And yet there are many men in Europe, as well as in Asia, who can
thus control animals, but those are nearly always special cases. There are men
in Germany, Austria, Italy, and Ireland who can bring about extraordinary
effects on horses, cattle, and the like, by peculiar sounds uttered in a certain
way. In those instances the sound used is a mantram of only one member, and will
act only on the particular animal that the user knows it can rule.

Student. - Do these men know the rules governing the matter? Are they
able to convey it to another?

Sage. - Generally not. It is a gift self-found or inherited, and they
only know that it can be done by them, just as a mesmerizer knows he can do a
certain thing with a wave of his hand, but is totally ignorant of the principle.
They are as ignorant of the base of this strange effect as your modern
physiologists are of the function and cause of such a common thing as yawning.

Student. - Under what head should we put this unconscious exercise of
power?

Sage. - Under the head of natural magic, that materialistic science
can never crush out. It is a touch with nature and her laws always preserved by
the masses, who, while they form the majority of the population, are yet ignored
by the "cultured classes." And so it will be discovered by you that it is not in
London or Paris or New York drawing-rooms that you will find mantrams, whether
regular or irregular, used by the people. "Society," too cultured to be natural,
has adopted methods of speech intended to conceal and to deceive, so that
natural mantrams can not be studied within its borders.

Single, natural mantrams are such words as "wife." When it is spoken it
brings up in the mind all that is implied by the
p.402
word. And if in another
language, the word would be that corresponding to the same basic idea. And so
with expressions of greater length, such as many slang sentences; thus, "I want
to see the color of his money." There are also sentences applicable to certain
individuals, the use of which involves a knowledge of the character of those to
whom we speak. When these are used, a peculiar and lasting vibration is set up
in the mind of the person affected, leading to a realization in action of the
idea involved, or to a total change of life due to the appositeness of the
subjects brought up and to the peculiar mental antithesis induced in the hearer.
As soon as the effect begins to appear the mantram may be forgotten, since the
law of habit then has sway in the brain.

Again, bodies of men are acted on by expressions having the mantramic
quality; this is observed in great social or other disturbances. The reason is
the same as before. A dominant idea is aroused that touches upon a want of the
people or on an abuse which oppresses them, and the change and interchange in
their brains between the idea and the form of words go on until the result is
accomplished. To the occultist of powerful sight this is seen to be a "ringing"
of the words coupled with the whole chain of feelings, interests, aspirations,
and so forth, that grows faster and deeper as the time for the relief or change
draws near. And the greater number of persons affected by the idea involved, the
larger, deeper, and wider the result. A mild illustration may be found in Lord
Beaconsfield of England. He knew about mantrams, and continually invented
phrases of that quality. "Peace with honor" was one; "a scientific frontier" was
another; and his last, intended to have a wider reach, but which death prevented
his supplementing, was "Empress of India." King Henry of England also tried it
without himself knowing why, when he added to his titles, "Defender of the
Faith." With these hints numerous illustrations will occur to you.

Student. - These mantrams have only to do with human beings as between
each other. They do not affect elementals,
p.403
as I judge from what you say. And
they are not dependent upon the sound so much as upon words bringing up
ideas. Am I right in this; and is it the case that there is a field in which
certain vocalizations produce effects in the Akasa by means of which men,
animals, and elementals alike can be influenced, without regard to their
knowledge of any known language?

Sage. - You are right. We have only spoken of natural,
unconsciously-used mantrams. The scientific mantrams belong to the class you
last referred to. It is to be doubted whether they can be found in modern
Western languages - especially among English speaking people who are continually
changing and adding to their spoken words to such an extent that the English of
today could hardly be understood by Chaucer's predecessors. It is in the ancient
Sanscrit and the language which preceded it that mantrams are hidden. The laws
governing their use are also to be found in those languages, and not in any
modern philological store.

Student. - Suppose, though, that one acquires a knowledge of ancient
and correct mantrams, could he affect a person speaking English, and by the use
of English words?

Sage. - He could; and all adepts have the power to translate a
strictly regular mantram into any form of language, so that a single sentence
thus uttered by them will have an immense effect on the person addressed,
whether it be by letter or word of mouth.

Student. - Is there no way in which we might, as it were, imitate
those adepts in this?

Sage. - Yes, you should study simple forms of mantramic quality, for
the purpose of thus reaching the hidden mind of all the people who need
spiritual help. You will find now and then some expression that has resounded in
the brain, at last producing such a result that he who heard it turns his mind
to spiritual things.p.404
Student. - I thank you for your instruction.

Sage. - May the Brahmamantram guide you to the everlasting truth - OM.

Path, August, 1888

LAWS GOVERNING ELEMENTALS

STUDENT. - A materialist stated to me as his opinion
that all that is said about mantrams is mere sentimental theorizing, and while
it may be true that certain words affect people, the sole reason is that they
embody ideas distasteful or pleasant to the hearers, but that the mere sounds,
as such, have no effect whatever, and as to either words or sounds affecting
animals he denied it altogether. Of course he would not take elementals into
account at all, as their existence is impossible for him.

Sage. - This position is quite natural in these days. There has been
so much materialization of thought, and the real scientific attitude of leading
minds in different branches of investigation has been so greatly misunderstood
by those who think they follow the example of the scientific men, that most
people in the West are afraid to admit anything beyond what may be apprehended
by the five senses. The man you speak of is one of that always numerous class
who adopt as fixed and unalterable general laws laid down from time to time by
well known savants, forgetting that the latter constantly change and
advance from point to point.

Student. - Do you think, then, that the scientific world will one day
admit much that is known to Occultists?

Sage. - Yes, it will. The genuine Scientist is always in that attitude
which permits him to admit things proven. He may seem to you often to be
obstinate and blind, but in fact he is proceeding slowly to the truth - too
slowly, perhaps for you, yet not in the position of knowing all. It is the
veneered scientist who swears by the published results of the work of lead-
p.406
ing
men as being the last word, while, at the very moment he is doing so, his
authority may have made notes or prepared new theories tending to greatly
broaden and advance the last utterance. It is only when the dogmatism of a
priest backed up by law declares that a discovery is opposed to the revealed
word of his god, that we may fear. That day is gone for a long time to come, and
we need expect no more scenes like that in which Galileo took part. But among
the materialistic minds to whom you referred, there is a good deal of that old
spirit left, only that the "revealed word of God" has become the utterances of
our scientific leaders.

Student. - I have observed that within even the last quarter of a
century. About ten years ago many well-known men laughed to scorn any one who
admitted the facts within the experience of every mesmerizer, while now, under
the term "hypnotism," they are nearly all admitted. And when these lights of our
time were denying it all, the French doctors were collating the results of a
long series of experiments. It seems as if the invention of a new term for an
old and much abused one furnished an excuse for granting all that had been
previously denied. But have you anything to say about those materialistic
investigators? Are they not governed by some powerful, though unperceived, law?

Sage. - They are. They are in the forefront of the mental, but not of
the spiritual, progress of the time, and are driven forward by forces they know
nothing of. Help is very often given to them by the Masters, who, neglecting
nothing, constantly see to it that these men make progress upon the fittest
lines for them, just as you are assisted not only in your spiritual life but in
your mental also. These men, therefore, will go on admitting facts and finding
new laws or new names for old laws, to explain them. They cannot help it.

Student. - What should be our duty, then, as students of truth? Should
we go out as reformers of science, or what?

Sage. - You ought not to take up the role of reformers of the schools
and their masters, because success would not attend the effort.
p.407
Science is
competent to take care of itself, and you would only be throwing pearls before
them to be trampled under foot. Rest content that all within their comprehension
will be discovered and admitted from time to time. The endeavor to force them
into admitting what you believe to be so plain would be due almost solely to
your vanity and love of praise. It is not possible to force them, any more than
it is for me to force you, to admit certain incomprehensible laws, and you would
not think me wise or fair to first open before you things, to understand which
you have not the necessary development, and then to force you into admitting
their truth. Or if, out of reverence, you should say, "These things are true,"
while you comprehended nothing and were not progressing, you would have bowed to
superior force.

Student. - But you do not mean that we should remain ignorant of
science and devote ourselves only to ethics?

Sage. - Not at all. Know all that you can. Become conversant with and
sift all that the schools have declared, and as much more on your own account as
is possible, but at the same time teach, preach, and practice a life based on a
true understanding of brotherhood. This is the true way. The common people,
those who know no science, are the greatest number. They must be so taught that
the discoveries of science which are unillumined by spirit may not be turned
into Black Magic.

Student. - In our last conversation you touched upon the guarding of
buried treasure by elementals. I should like very much to hear a little more
about that. Not about how to control them or to procure the treasure, but upon
the subject generally.

Sage. - The laws governing the hiding of buried treasure are the same
as those that relate to lost objects. Every person has about him a fluid, or
plane, or sphere, or energy, which-ever you please to call it, in which are
constantly found elementals that partake of his nature. That is, they are tinted
p.408
with his color and impressed by his character. There are numerous classes of
these. Some men have many of one class or of all, or many of some and few of
others. And anything worn upon your person is connected with your elementals.
For instance, you wear cloth made of wool or linen, and little objects made of
wood, bone, brass, gold, silver, and other substances. Each one of these has
certain magnetic relations peculiar to itself, and all of them are soaked, to a
greater or less extent, with your magnetism as well as nervous fluid. Some of
them, because of their substance, do not long retain this fluid, while others
do. The elementals are connected, each class according to its substance, with
those objects by means of the magnetic fluid. And they are acted upon by the
mind and desires to a greater extent than you know, and in a way that cannot be
formulated in English. Your desires have a powerful grasp, so to say, upon
certain things, and upon others a weaker hold. When one of these objects is
suddenly dropped, it is invariably followed by elementals. They are drawn after
it, and may be said to go with the object by attraction rather than by sight. In
many cases they completely envelop the thing, so that, although it is near at
hand, it cannot be seen by the eye. But after awhile the magnetism wears off and
their power to envelop the article weakens, whereupon it appears in sight. This
does not happen in every case. But it is a daily occurrence, and is sufficiently
obvious to many persons to be quite removed from the realm of fable. I think,
indeed, that one of your literary persons has written an essay upon this very
experience, in which, although treated in a comic vein, many truths are
unconsciously told; the title of this was, if I mistake not, "Upon the Innate
Perversity of Inanimate Objects." There is such a nice balancing of forces in
these cases that you must be careful in your generalizations. You may justly
ask, for instance, Why, when a coat is dropped, it seldom disappears from sight?
Well, there are cases in which even such a large object is hidden, but they are
not very common. The coat is full of your magnetism, and the elementals may feel
in it just as much of you as when it is on your
p.409
back. There may be, for them, no
disturbance of the relations, magnetic and otherwise. And often in the case of a
small object not invisible, the balancing of forces, due to many causes that
have to do with your condition at the time, prevents the hiding. To decide in
any particular case, one would have to see into the realm where the operation of
these laws is hidden, and calculate all the forces, so as to say why it happened
in one way and not in another.

Student. - But take the case of a man who, being in possession of
treasure, hides it in the earth and goes away and dies, and it is not found. In
that instance the elementals did not hide it. Or when a miser buries his gold or
jewels. How about those?

Sage. - In all cases where a man buries gold, or jewels, or money, or
precious things, his desires are fastened to that which he hides. Many of his
elementals attach themselves to it, and other classes of them also, who had
nothing to do with him, gather round and keep it hidden. In the case of the
captain of a ship containing treasure the influences are very powerful, because
there the elementals are gathered from all the persons connected with the
treasure, and the officer himself is full of solicitude for what is committed to
his charge. You should also remember that gold and silver - or metals - have
relations with elementals that are of a strong and peculiar character. They do
not work for human law, and natural law does not assign any property in metals
to man, nor recognize in him any peculiar and transcendent right to retain what
he has dug from the earth or acquired to himself. Hence we do not find the
elementals anxious to restore to him the gold or silver which he had lost. If we
were to assume that they occupied themselves in catering to the desires of men
or in establishing what we call our rights over property, we might as well at
once grant the existence of a capricious and irresponsible Providence. They
proceed solely according to the law of their being, and, as they are without the
power of making a judgment, they commit no blunders and are not to
p.410
be moved by
considerations based upon our vested rights or our unsatisfied wishes.
Therefore, the spirits that appertain to metals invariably act as the laws of
their nature prescribe, and one way of doing so is to obscure the metals from
our sight.

Student. - Can you make any application of all this in the realm of
ethics?

Sage. - There is a very important thing you should not overlook. Every
time you harshly and unmercifully criticize the faults of another, you produce
an attraction to yourself of certain quantities of elementals from that person.
They fasten themselves upon you and endeavor to find in you a similar state or
spot or fault that they have left in the other person. It is as if they left him
to serve you at higher wages, so to say.

Then there is that which I referred to in a preceding conversation, about the
effect of our acts and thoughts upon, not only the portion of the astral light
belonging to each of us with its elementals, but upon the whole astral world. If
men saw the dreadful pictures imprinted there and constantly throwing down upon
us their suggestions to repeat the same acts or thoughts, a millennium might
soon draw near. The astral light is, in this sense, the same as a photographer's
negative plate, and we are the sensitive paper underneath, on which is being
printed the picture. We can see two sorts of pictures for each act. One is the
act itself, and the other is the picture of the thoughts and feelings animating
those engaged in it. You can therefore see that you may be responsible for many
more dreadful pictures than you had supposed. For actions of a simple outward
appearance have behind them, very often, the worst of thoughts or desires.

Student. - Have these pictures in the astral light anything to do with
us upon being reincarnated in subsequent earth-lives?

Sage. - They have very much indeed. We are influenced by them for vast
periods of time, and in this you can perhaps
p.411
find clues to many operations of
active Karmic law for which you seek.

Student. - Is there not also some effect upon animals, and through
them upon us, and vice versa?

Sage. - Yes. The animal kingdom is affected by us through the astral
light. We have impressed the latter with pictures of cruelty, oppression,
dominion, and slaughter. The whole Christian world admits that man can
indiscriminately slaughter animals, upon the theory, elaborately set forth by
priests in early times, that animals have no souls. Even little children learn
this and very early begin to kill insects, birds, and animals, not for
protection, but from wantonness. As they grow up the habit is continued, and in
England we see that shooting large numbers of birds beyond the wants of the
table, is a national peculiarity, or, as I should say, a vice. This may be
called a mild illustration. If these people could catch elementals as easily as
they can animals, they would kill them for amusement when they did not want them
for use; and, if the elementals refused to obey, then their death would follow
as a punishment. All this is perceived by the elemental world, without
conscience of course; but, under the laws of action and reaction, we receive
back from it exactly that which we give.

Student. - Before we leave the subject I should like to refer again to
the question of metals and the relation of man to the elementals connected with
the mineral world. We see some persons who seem always to be able to find metals
with ease - or, as they say, who are lucky in that direction. how am I to
reconcile this with the natural tendency of elementals to hide? Is it because
there is a war or discord, as it were, between different classes belonging to
any one person?

Sage. - That is a part of the explanation. Some persons, as I said,
have more of one class attached to them than another. A person fortunate with
metals, say of gold and silver, has about him more of the elementals connected
with or belong-
p.412
ing to the kingdoms of those metals than other people, and thus
there is less strife between the elementals. The preponderance of the
metal-spirits makes the person more homogeneous with their kingdoms, and a
natural attraction exists between the gold or silver lost or buried and that
person, more than in the case of other people.

Student. - What determines this? Is it due to a desiring of gold and
silver, or is it congenital?

Sage. - It is innate. The combinations in any one individual are so
intricate and due to so many causes that you could not calculate them. They run
back many generations, and depend upon peculiarities of soil, climate, nation,
family, and race. These are, as you can see, enormously varied, and, with the
materials at your command now, quite beyond your reach. Merely wishing for gold
and silver will not do it.

Student. - I judge also that attempting to get at those elementals by
thinking strongly will not accomplish that result either.

Sage. - No, it will not, because your thoughts do not reach them. They
do not hear or see you, and, as it is only by accidental concentration of forces
that unlearned people influence them, these accidents are only possible to the
extent that you possess the natural leaning to the particular kingdom whose
elementals you have influenced.

Student. - I thank you for your instruction.

Sage. - May you be guided to the path which leads to light!

Path, September, 1888

"FORMS" OF ELEMENTALS

STUDENT. - What principal idea would it be well for me to dwell upon in my
studies on the subject of elementals?

Sage. - You ought to clearly fix in your mind and fully comprehend a
few facts and the laws relating to them. As the elemental world is wholly
different from the one visible to you, the laws governing them and their actions
cannot as yet be completely defined in terms now used either by scientific or
metaphysical schools. For that reason, only as partial description is possible.
Some of those facts I will give you, it being well understood that I am not
including all classes of elemental beings in my remarks.

First, then, Elementals have no form.

Student. - You mean, I suppose, that they have no limited form or body
as ours, having a surface upon which sensation appears to be located.

Sage. - Not only so, but also that they have not even a shadowy,
vague, astral form such as is commonly ascribed to ghosts. They have no distinct
personal form in which to reveal themselves.

Student. - How am I to understand that, in view of the instances given
by Bulwer Lytton and others of appearances of elementals in certain forms?

Sage. - The shape given to or assumed by any elemental is always
subjective in its origin. It is produced by the person who sees, and who, in
order to be more sensible of the elemental's presence, has unconsciously given
it a form. Or it may be due to a collective impression on many individuals,
p.414
resulting in the assumption of a definite shape which is the result to the
combined impressions.

Student. - Is this how we may accept as true the story of Luther's
seeing the devil?

Sage. - Yes. Luther from his youth had imagined a personal devil, the
head of the fraternity of wicked ones, who had a certain specific form. This
instantly clothed the elementals that Luther evoked, either through intense
enthusiasm or from disease, with the old image reared and solidified in his
mind; and he called it the Devil.

Student. - That reminds me of a friend who told me that in his youth
he saw the conventional devil walk out of the fire place and pass across the
room, and that ever since he believed the devil had an objective existence.

Sage. - In the same way also you can understand the extraordinary
occurrences at Salem in the United States, when hysterical and mediumistic women
and children saw the devil and also various imps of different shapes. Some of
these gave the victims information. They were all elementals, and took their
illusionary forms from the imaginations and memory of the poor people who were
afflicted.

Student. - But there are cases where a certain form always appears.
Such as a small, curiously-dressed woman who had never existed in the
imagination of those seeing her; and other regularly recurring appearances. How
were those produced, since the persons never had such a picture before them?

Sage. - These pictures are found in the aura of the person, and are
due to pre-natal impressions. Each child emerges into life the possessor of
pictures floating about the clinging to it, derived from the mother; and thus
you can go back an enormous distance in time for these pictures, all through the
long line of you descent. It is a part of the action of the same law which
causes effect upon a child's body through influences acting on the mother during
gestation.11 See Isis Unveiled in the chapter on Teratology.
p.415
Student. - In order, then, to know the cause of any such appearance,
one must be able to look back, not only into the person's present life, but also
into the ancestor's past?

Sage. - Precisely. And for that reason an occultist is not hasty in
giving his opinion on these particular facts. He can only state the general law,
for a life might be wasted in needless investigation of an unimportant past. You
can see that there would be no justification for going over a whole lifetime's
small affairs in order to tell a person at what time or juncture an image was
projected before his mind. Thousands of such impressions are made every year.
That they are not developed into memory does not prove their
non-existence. Like the unseen picture upon the photographer's sensitive plate,
they lie awaiting the hour of development.

Student. - In what way should I figure to myself the essence of an
elemental and its real mode of existence?

Sage. - You should think of these as centres of energy only,
that act always in accordance with the laws of the plane of nature to which they
belong.

Student. - Is it not just as if we were to say that gunpowder is an
elemental and will invariable explode when lighted? That is, that the elementals
know no rules of either wrong or right, but surely act when the incitement to
their natural action is present? They are thus, I suppose, said to be
implacable.

Sage. - Yes; they are like the lightning which flashes or destroys as
the varying circumstances compel. It has no regard for man, or love, or beauty,
or goodness, but may as quickly kill the innocent, or burn the property of the
good as of the wicked man.

Student. - What next?

Sage. - That the elementals live in and through all objects, as well
as beyond the earth's atmosphere.

Student. - Do you mean that a certain class of elementals,
p.416
for
instance, exist in this mountain, and float unobstructed through men, earth,
rocks, and trees?

Sage. - Yes, and not only that, but at the same time, penetrating that
class of elementals, there may be another class which float not only through
rocks, trees, and men, but also through the first of the classes referred to.

Student. - Do they perceive these objects obstructive for us, through
which they thus float?

Sage. - No, generally they do not. In exceptional cases they do, and
even then never with the same sort of cognition that we have. For them the
objects have no existence. A large block of stone or iron offers for them no
limits or density. It may, however, make an impression on them by way of change
of color or sound, but not by way of density or obstruction.

Student. - It is not something like this, that a current of
electricity passes through a hard piece of copper wire, while it will not pass
through an unresisting space of air.

Sage. - That serves to show that the thing which is dense to one form
of energy may be open to another. Continuing your illustration, we see that man
can pass through air but is stopped by metal. So that "hardness" for us is not
"hardness" for electricity. Similarly, that which may stop an elemental is not a
body that we call hard, but something which for us is intangible and invisible,
but presents to them an adamantine front.

Student. - I thank you for your instruction.

Sage. - Strive to deserve further enlightenment!

Path, October, 1888

CONVERSATIONS ON OCCULTISM WITH HPB

IN 1875, '76, '77 and '78 my intimacy with H.P.B. gave me many opportunities
for conversing with her on what we then called "Magic." These useful, and for me
very wonderful, occasions came about late at night, and sometimes during the
day. I was then in the habit of calling on her in the daytime whenever I could
get away from my office. Many times I stayed in her flat for the purpose of
hearing as much and seeing as much as I could. Later on, in 1884, I spent many
weeks with her in the Rue Notre Dame des Champs in Paris, sitting beside her day
after day and evening after evening; later still in 1888, being with her in
London, at Holland Park, I had a few more opportunities. Some of what she said I
publish here for the good of those who can benefit by her words. Certainly no
greater practical occultist is known to this century: from that point of view
what she said will have a certain useful weight with some.

ON DEVACHAN

This terms was not in use at this time. The conversation was about steps on
the Path and returning here again. In answer to a question:

"Yes, you have been here and at this before. You were born with this
tendency, and in other lives have met these persons [supposed Adept influences],
and they are here to see you for that reason."

Later, when definite terms had come into use, the question raised was whether
or not all stayed 1500 years in Devachan.
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"Well, Judge, you must know well that under the philosophy we don't all stay
there so long. It varies with the character of each. A thoroughly material
thinker will emerge sooner than one who is a spiritual philosopher and good.
Besides, recollect that all workers for the Lodge, no matter of what degree, are
helped out of Devachan if they themselves permit it. Your own ideas which you
have stated, that 1500 years had not elapsed since you went into Devachan, is
correct, and that I tell is what Master himself tells me. So there you are."

PRECIPITATION BY MASTERS

In reply to a question on this she said:

"If you think Master is going to be always precipitating things, you mistake.
Yes, He can do it. But most of the precipitations are by chelas who would seem
to you almost Masters. I see His orders, and the thoughts and words He wishes
used, and I precipitate them in that form; so does __ and one or two more."

"Well, what of Their handwritings?"

"Anything you write is your handwriting, but it is not your personal
handwriting, generally used and first learned if you assume or adopt some form.
Now you know that Masters' handwritings, peculiar and personal to Themselves,
are foreign both as to sound and form -Indian sorts, in fact. So They adopted a
form in English, and in that form I precipitate Their messages as Their
direction. Why B__ almost caught me one day and nearly made a mess of it by
shocking me. The message has to be seen in the astral light in facsimile,
and through that astral matrix I precipitate the whole of it. It's different,
though, if Master sends me the paper and the message already done. That's why I
call these things 'psychological tricks.' The sign of an objective wonder seemed
to be required, although a moment's thought will show it is not proof of
anything but occult ability. Many a medium has had precipitations before my
miserable self was heard of. But blessed is the one who wants no sign. You have
seen plenty of these
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things. Why do you want to ask me? Can't you use your brain
and intuition? I've sampled almost the whole possible range of wonders for you.
Let them use their brains and intuition with the known facts and the theories
given."

IF WHITE MAGICIANS ACT, WHAT THEN?

"Look here; here's a man who wants to know why the Masters don't interpose at
once and save his business. They don't seem to remember what it means for a
Master to use occult force. If you explode gunpowder to split a rock you may
knock down a house. There is a law that if a White Magician uses his occult
power and equal amount of power may be used by the Black one. Chemists invent
powders for explosives and wicked men may use them. You force yourself into
Mater's presence and you take the consequences of the immense forces around him
playing on yourself. If you are weak in character anywhere, the Black ones will
use the disturbance by directing the forces engendered to that spot and may
compass your ruin. It is so always. Pass the boundary that hedges in the occult
realm, and quick forces, new ones, dreadful ones, must be met. Then if you are
not strong you may become a wreck for that life. This is the danger. This is one
reason why Masters do not appear and do not act directly very often, but nearly
always by intermediate degrees. What do you say,-'the dual forces in nature'?
Precisely, that's just it; and Theosophists should remember it."

DO MASTERS PUNISH?

"Now I'm not going to tell you about this. They are just; They embody the Law
and Compassion. Do not for an instant imagine that Masters are going to come
down on you for your failures and wrongs, if any. Karma looks out for this.
Masters' ethics are the highest. From the standpoint of your question, They do
not punish. Have I not told you that, much as detractors have cast mud at Them,
never will the Masters impose punishment. I cannot see why such a question comes
up. Karma will do all the punishing that is necessary."
p.420

ABOUT ELEMENTALS

"It's a long time ago now that I told you this part would not be explained.
But I can tell you some things. This one that you and Olcott used to call ___
can't see you unless I let him. Now I will impress you upon it or him so that
like a photograph he will remember so far. But you can't make it obey you until
you know how to get the force directed. I'll send him to you and let him make a
bell."

[In a few days after this the proposed sign was given at a distance from her,
and a little bell was sounded in the air when I was talking with a person not
interested in Theosophy, and when I was three miles away from H.P.B.. On next
seeing her she asked if ___ had been over and sounded the bell, mentioning the
exact day and time.]

"This one has no form in particular, but is more like a revolving mass of
air. But it is, all the same, quite definite, as you know from what he has done.
There are some classes with forms of their own. The general division into fiery,
airy, earthy, and watery is pretty correct, but it will not cover all the
classes. There is not a single thing going on about us, no matter what, the
elementals are not concerned in, because they constitute a necessary part of
nature, just as important as the nerve currents in your body. Why in storms you
should see them how they move about. Don't you remember what you told me about
that lady___who saw them change and move about at that opera? It was due to her
tendencies and the general idea underlying the opera." [ It was the opera of
Tristan and Isolde, by Wagner.-J ] "In that case, as Isolde is Irish, the whole
ideas under it aroused a class of elementals peculiar to that island and its
traditions. That's a queer place, Judge, that Ireland. It is packed full of a
singular class of elementals; and, by Jove! I see they even have emigrated in
quite large numbers. Sometimes one quite by accident rouses up some ancient
system, say from Egypt; that is the explanation of that singular astral noise
which you said reminded you of a sistrum being shaken; it was really objective.
But, my dear fellow, do you think I will give you a patent elemental
p.421
extractor?
--not yet. Bulwer Lytton wrote very wisely, for him, on this subject."

[Riding over in Central Park, New York.] "It is very interesting here. I see
a great number of Indians, and also their elementals, just as real as you seem
to be. They do not see us; they are all spooks. But look here, Judge, don't
confound the magnetism escaping through your skin with the gentle taps of
supposed elementals who want a cigarette."

[In W. 34th Street, New York. The first time she spoke to me of elementals
particularly, I having asked her about her Spiritualism.-J.]

"It is nearly all done by elementals. Now I can make them tap anywhere you
like in this room. Select any place you wish." [I pointed to a hard plaster
wall-space from from objects.] "Now ask what you like that can be answered by
taps."

Q. What is my age? Taps: the correct number.

Q. How many in my house? Taps: right.

Q. How many months have I been in the city? Taps: correct.

Q. What number of minutes past the hour by my watch? Taps:
right.

Q. How many keys on my ring? Taps: correct.

H.P.B. "Oh bosh! Let it stop. You won't get any more, for I have cut
it off. Try your best. They have no sense; they got it all out of your own head,
even the keys, for you know inside how many keys are on the ring, though you
don't remember; but any how I could see into your pocket and count the number,
and then that tapper would give the right reply. There's something better than
all that magic nonsense."

SHE PRECIPITATES IN LONDON

In 1888 I was in London and wanted a paper, with about four sentences written
on it in purple ink, which I had left in America. I came down to her room where
B. Keightley was, and, not saying anything, sat down opposite H.P.B. I thought:
p.422
"If only she would get me back some way a copy of that paper." She smiled at me,
rose, went into her room, came out at once, and in a moment handed me a piece of
paper, passing it right in front of Keightley. To my amazement it was a
duplicate of my paper, a facsimile. I then asked her how she got it, and
she replied: "I saw it in your head and the rest was easy. You thought it very
clearly. You know it can be done; and it was needed." This was all done in about
the time it takes to read these descriptive sentences.

William
Q. Judge

Path, April, 1894

OCCULT VIBRATIONS

A FRAGMENT OF CONVERSATION WITH H.P.B. IN 1888

The following was written by me at the dictation of H.P.B. in 1888 with the
purpose of printing it at that time. But it was not used then, and as I
brought it home with me it is now of interest. - W.Q.J.

Q. - It has struck me while thinking over the difference between ordinary
people and an adept or even a partly developed student, that the rate of
vibration of the brain molecules, as well as he coördination of those with the
vibrations of the higher brain, may lie at the bottom of the difference and also
might explain many other problems.

H.P.B. - So they do. They make differences and also cause many curious
phenomena; and the differences among all persons are greatly due to vibrations
of all kinds.

Q. - In reading the article ["Aum!"] in the PATH of
April, 1886, this idea was again suggested. I open at p. 6, Vol. I.

The divine Resonance spoken of above is not the Divine Light itself. The
Resonance is only the outbreathing of the first sound of the entire Aum.... It
manifests itself not only as the power which stirs up and animates the
particles of the universe, but also in the evolution and dissolution of man,
of the animal and mineral kingdoms, and the Solar system. Among the Aryans it
was represented by the planet Mercury, who has always been said to govern the
intellectual faculties and to be the universal stimulator.

What of this?

H.P.B. - Mercury was always known as the god of secret wisdom. He is Hermes
as well as Budha the son of Soma. Speaking of matters on the lower plane, I
would call the "Divine Resonance" you read of in the PATH
"vibrations"
p.424
and the originator, or that which gives the impulse to every kind
of phenomena in the astral plane.

Q. - The differences found in human brains and natures must, then, have their
root in differences of vibration?

H.P.B. - Most assuredly so.

Q. - Speaking of mankind as a whole, is it true that all have one key or rate
of vibration to which they respond?

H.P.B. - Human beings in general are like so many keys on the piano, each
having its own sound, and the combination of which produces other sounds in
endless variety. Like inanimate nature they have a key-note from which all the
varieties of character and constitution proceed by endless changes. Remember
what was said in Isis Unveiled at p. 16, Vol. I, "The Universe is the
combination of a thousand elements, and yet the expression of a single spirit, -
a chaos to the sense (physical), a cosmos to the reason" (manas).

Q. - So far this applies generally to nature. Does it explain the difference
between the adept and ordinary people?

H.P.B. - Yes. This difference is that an adept may be compared to that one
key which contains all the keys in the great harmony of nature. He has the
synthesis of all keys in his thoughts, whereas ordinary man has the same key as
a basis, but only acts and thinks on one or a few changes of this great key,
producing with his brain only a few chords out of the whole great possible
harmony.

Q. - Has this something to do with the fact that a disciple may hear the
voice of his master through the astral spaces, while another man cannot hear or
communicate with the adepts?

H.P.B. - This is because the brain of a chela is attuned by training to the
brain of the Master. His vibrations synchronize with those of the Adept, and the
untrained brain is not so attuned. So the chela's brain is abnormal, looking at
it from the standpoint of ordinary life, while that of the ordinary man is
normal for worldly purposes. The latter person may be
p.425
compared to those who are
color-blind.